ZoE: Remnants of the Fallen
by Nilke
Summary: A decade after the events from Countdown, a new crisis finds the members of BIS scattered through Mars. This time, they won't be the heroes in the battlefield, but the victims of someone else's actions, the witnesses of other's schemes. OCs included.
1. Chapter 1: Reunions

Chapter 1: Reunions

"I won't get in trouble this time, I promise", the blue-haired young man said, acting as innocently as he could, but his darkenned eye didn't help much.

"Yeah, yeah, Gilbert, say what you want, but there's no guarantee that you'll get rid of them", the pretty brunnette girl complained, knowing his friend well. After all, they had spent their entire life together at the orphanage.

"There's also no guarantee that you'll stop behaving like you are doing now, eager to show up on TV!", the lad protested, after moaning when another friend of his, an older girl, short with red hair tied up in two ponytails, pressed an alcohol embebed cotton over a cut in his shoulder.

"How dare you say that?", the girl exclaimed furiously. "At least I'm no petty gangster, hanging out with a crappy mob"

"I've quitted, I've told ya'!", the beaten boy insisted, angry, since no one believed him.

"Sorry to upset you even more, but once you get in, you stay there forever, they say", an older guy with short orange hair said, dissappointed.

The remaining person in the room, a young seminarist carrying a silver cross around his neck, leant his head against the wall and sighed, tired. Thank God that Father Alphonse was away, or he would have gotten preached by the generous, yet strict middle-aged man.

It was getting troublesome to run the orphanage, but luckily, and thanks to Father Alphonse, the soon to become Father Paul –or Father Pauly, as everyone already called him, under his protests- managed to run the orphanage that had hosted him since his early childhood, with his friends' help. The worst part came when his friends proved to be more troublesome than what they were worth. Like at that very moment.

Tired of the constant arguing, he rubbed his eyes nerviously before asking for some peace.

"Can't we behave like grown-ups and stop accussing each other?", he begged in despair. "What kind of example are we giving the kids here?"

The older girl smiled at him proudly. However, she ended up laughing at his statement. "We used to argue with the Idiot back there a lot when you were children, Pauly", Semyl recalled, smiling. "We still do!"

"Glad that you recognize it", Razma said, sighing.

Pauly shook his head. "These two are far worse than what you were and still are. You were joking. They, instead, mean every word they say"

Jojo and Gilbert looked at each other by the corner of the eye, defiantly. None of them would give in to the other's opionions.

A few knocks at the door were heard, interrupting the group's argument.

"I'll go", Pauly said, jumping from his seat. "Oh, Hope!", he exclaimed, smiling warmly. "Come in, don't be shy"

A young woman, who must have been in her early thirties, came in. She was tall and thin, and had her dark red hair tied up in a high ponytail. She looked serious and shy, and her eyes showed a hint of sadness and regret.

Semyl looked in another direction when the newcomer got into the room, and Razma sighed. That young woman had a certain negative effect on them, that they couldn't repress.

Pauly shook his head at his friends' attitude towards her. "What's the matter, Hope?", he asked, resigned.

"I wanted to ask you how are we going to do to get the new donation", she said, calmly, as if nothing had ever happened around her. "I mean, it's an important one"

Pauly bit his upper lip, thoughtfully. There were way too many children at the orphanage, but little help from the grown-ups. Apart from Razma, Semyl, Jojo and Gilbert, there were few people to take care of the kids. And Hope was one of the few administrative workers there, but she didn't want to mess around the kids, to get involved with them.  
>"I can go", Semyl said, shrugging.<p>

"No!", Jojo interrupted her, nervously. "It's my new audition, and you promised to come with me!"

"Hell, I've completely forgotten about it!"

"If they are going somewhere else, we have to stay with the kids", Razma said.

"I can go", Hope offered herself, determined.

"But it's a long way from here…", Pauly hesitated, unsure.

"There's no problem. I can do that easily", the red-haired woman said, calmly.

"But you don't want to mess with the kids' affairs, or am I wrong?", the soon-to-become priest asked her, confused.

"I don't want to stay with them, but getting things for them is another matter", she explained.

"Then, if no one else can go, I don't see any obstacle for letting you go"

Hope smiled, thankful. "Thanks, Paul. I'll get the things ready to leave as soon as possible", she said, walking to the door. She waved at everyone before leaving, even if she knew that only Pauly would care about her greetings.

Semyl sighed, annoyed. "She gets on my nerves… after all this time", she said, angrily.

"You should give up on those hard feelings, Semyl", Pauly advised her, feeling sorry for her combative behavior. "You should give Hope a second chance…"

"Why do you keep on calling her 'Hope' when her name is 'Mikenne'?", the short red-haired girl asked furiously. She couldn't handle her rage anymore. Thinking about her made her remember the final days of BIS, when everything at the battlefield was just too difficult. Because of her, Hazel got to know the fate of her parents' the hard way. Because of her, Ares' life became miserable once again. Because of her, Myona suffered the consequences of the MindFlow System once more. Because of her, her entire assembled family was gone. There were many things that were Mikenne's fault.

Pauly sighed, irritated. "Hey, that girl appeared in this place one day, when we were desperate… Remember that the orphanage was about to close. That woman appeared and agreed to work in exchange of food and shelter, as long as she didn't have to deal with the kids because she considers herself a 'bad influence'. She knows her limitations, and I know her entire story. She's trying her best to redeem herself, to mend her past mistakes…You shouldn't be too hard on her, Semyl. At that moment, you didn't say anything against her"

"You said it: we were desperate"

"Alright, but she does her job well, and in exchange, I want to give her a second chance in life, something that not so many people can have… That's why I call her 'Hope'. She's totally fine with it"

Semyl looked down, slightly embarrassed, but she was so stubborn. She couldn't forgive that easily as her Christian friend. How on Mars could he do that?

"Besides, she also suffered from the exposition to the MindFlow System, not only Myona", Pauly added, calmly. "She's also a victim here, even if she had done more pain to the others"

"You should listen to Pauly from time to time…", Razma said, but was shortly interrupted by Semyl.

"You say that because everything's fine while the being you are talking about has a pair of boobs and a nice ass", Semyl replied back, annoyed.

"Language!", Pauly protested, hitting his palm over his forehead.

"You say it in a way that makes it sound way too disgusting", Razma said, annoyed. "As if I were a professional pervert"-

"Well… you can't say that she's wrong, pal!", Gilbert teased him.

"As if you behaved different", Jojo complained, rolling her eyes.

"That's why I can tease him, because I can understand him!", he said, poking hands with an unenthusiastic Razma. "Come on, pal, get over it! Don't let them ruin your mood!"

"I wonder what kind of future do the kids have with us in charge…", Paul mumbled desperately.

(/)

The young, brown-haired woman walked down the spaceport stairs, trying to get used to the Martian atmosphere once again.

Her tidy brown suit and skirt were something she hardly expected herself to wear back on the days when she was a High School student, and her hair tidily tied up in a bun was just… impossible to even imagine for her at that time. However, there are things that change some people's lives, and that alter their path's forever.

That was what the Martian Diplomat Cynthia Stack thought as she walked along the spaceport, just as she sighed at the only sight of the fashion boutique that stood a few metres away from her. Without doubting even once, she switched her dreams of becoming a fashion designer to become a diplomat after the "Revival Crisis", named after BAHRAM's supposed revival after the Aumann Crisis. Having taken part of the fight herself made her change her ideas, only that she never told anyone –only to some loyal friends- the real story behind her change of mind.

Behind Cynthia, her assistant Alessa Janthurs followed her, seriously. A dedicated Diplomacy student, Alessa believed that she had to be grateful for working at Miss Stack's side, but she disagreed with her superior's ways of action most of the time. She was sure that Cynthia's passionate yet rude and rebellious behavior was the reason behind this kind of suicide mission that had been handed down to them. That, and the fact that no one else wanted to take it.

"I think that your silence reflects the fact that you are considering to turn into gardening, am I wrong? Or at least, into something where the chances of seeing me again are next to non-existant", Cynthia asked her assistant, sarcastically. Her sarcasm was one of her best weapons, and it stood like her trademark on any Diplomatic meeting.

"I won't walk away from the path that I've already chosen for myself before meeting you", Alessa replied, annoyed.

"You are too delicate in your treat, even when you are mad… like now", Cynthia stated, sighing. "That will please other diplomats, but will end with you in little time"

"At least I'll be respected by them, unlike you", the fair haired assistant replied back, bitterly.

"See? That's the kind of attitude you always have to show when defending your planet", Cynthia said, now pleased with her assistant. "About my comrades respect… they can keep it for themselves. They all run away like rats when this meeting was nothing but a project. I don't mind that kind of people's respect"

"And because of that, they thought that you were the best option to send as Martian representative in the annual Earth-Enders meeting… so, when we are finally made a colony, people will have at least one person to blame"

"And if we get to succeed, they'll jump at us, saying that they knew our potential from the very beginning and that they were always right", Cynthia said, shrugging.

"Nice scenario, but highly unlikely to happen"

"Why do you always have to see the negative side of things? You should also consider the positive possibilities"

"I'm not negative, I'm realistic. Maybe that's why you keep me at your side", Alessa said, seriously.

Cynthia smiled. "Maybe you are right. Or maybe because you have potential, or because you are too efficient and remind me of someone else", she said, as she recalled a certain black-cladded, black glasses man she had met in her youth.

"Whatever", Alessa said, as she stared at the spaceport's hall. "Shouldn't be someone here to pick us up?", she asked, looking everywhere for someone from the Martian Embassy with some kind of despair.

"I don't know, but I've already spotted who I was looking for", Cynthia said smiling, as she waved at a familiar face.

Alessa looked in that direction, puzzled. A Latin-descent man, who should be in his late twenties –just like Cynthia- waved at them. If she was still doubting that he was the one waiting for them, she only had to see her boss running to him, quickly, leaving her luggage behind. What's more, Cynthia hugged the stranger tightly, thing that froze Alessa, so it was obvious that he was the one waiting for them.

"You look quite good in your pilot uniform", Cynthia teased the man, laughing.

"What can I say about your current look, Miss Diplomacy", he teased her back, after staring at their uniforms. "I've just arrived from the offices, and I barely made it on time. Too bad that the space-travel had been banned, or I would have convinced the Company to lend me a plane, so I could take you as a top diplomat"

"I still doubt I'll make a good impression that way, either", Cynthia laughed. A touched smile arose in her face. "Thanks for picking us up, Elian. It's been a long time…", she said, softly.

"Sorry for interrupting…", Alessa finally said, softly. "But are you the one who came to pick us up?"

"Oh, what an idiot!", Cynthia cursed, annoyed with herself. "I haven't introduced you yet. Alessa, this is Elian Ferraro, a long time friend. Elian, this is Alessa Janthurs, my assistant"

"Nice to meet you", Elian said, grinning.

"The pleasure is mine", Alessa said, always diplomatically.

Elian chuckled at her. "Wow, you won the big one, Cynt! You have quite an assistant", he said, winking at the younger woman.

"See? She suffers greatly by my side, but she's the one who stops me from doing worse things"

"Could it be worse?", Alessa thought in despair, but smiled at them, trying to look as calm as she could.

"Well, I'll take you to your hotel, and then, we are off to have dinner at home. The kids are anxious to see you", he said, staring at Cynthia.

The brown-haired woman smiled, touched.

"Am I supposed to go?", Alessa mumbled, not so diplomaticaly, to Cynthia, while Elian walked a few metres behind them, taking their luggage.

"We've already chat about it. If you don't feel like coming, there's no problem. Don't stay up too long, and don't wait for me because I don't know how much I'll stay with my friends"

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning, then", Alessa said, leaning to grab her suitcase.

However, Elian was quicker than her and grabbed it first, as well as Cynthia's one. "Don't worry, I'll take both of you to the Hotel, wait for you to register, and then I'll take Cynthia away, for your rejoice. You'll have some time to rest", he said, winking at the younger girl.

Alessa smiled. That man understood how she felt.

"Hey, you say it as if I were a delinquent or something like that!", Cynthia complained, funnily.

"I'm afraid you've been spending much time in the cotton-like Diplomatic world, so I have the duty to bring you back to Mars"

"Hehehe, have you heard, Alessa?", Cynthia asked the younger woman, teasingly. "He thinks the Diplomatic world is far too delicate"

"Well… it's not exactly like that", Alessa said, shyly.

"It's quite the opposite!", Cynthia stressed, energically. "Now, let's get going, or I'll fall asleep right here"

Elian laughed and asked them to follow him, while he carried their bags.

(/)

"I wonder how this will end up", Cage Midwell ask rhetorically to his wife, Myona, as they walked to the door.

"Everything will be okay… I don't know why you are nervous", Myona said, while brushing Valerie's –their only child- light blue hair quickly. "And to believe that you were so enthusiastic when she first invited us", she teased him, smiling.

"Alright, here it goes", Cage said, ringing the bell.

In a few seconds, the door opened, and a long, light blue haired woman appeared, welcoming them.

"Cage! Myona! I'm so happy to see you again!", the grey-eyed woman exclaimed happily, hugging them as they came in.

Myona hugged her back, with more affection –real affection- than what she thought she would ever feel for her. "Hazel, you are looking great!", she finally said, after examining her former BIS companion for a short while.

Hazel blushed. "I look just like when I last saw you… all those years back", she said, shyly. "But come on in, we've been waiting for you!", she said, picking their wares and leaving them in a small side room.

Cage and Myona moved shyly around Hazel's home, while waiting for her to lead the way. They felt so odd about being there. They had never argued, and they had to admit that Hazel had behaved great and had been really helpful on Ares' last moments, but they hadn't talked again since his funeral, eight years ago. This visit was going to be something ground-shaking for everyone.

"I can't believe this beautiful young lady here is your daughter!", she said, kneeling down to see the girl better. "I'm Hazel, a friend of your parents. What's your name, sweetie?"

"I'm Valerie", the five-year-old girl replied, proudly.

"That's a nice name!", she said, smiling at her. Then she stared at Cage and Myona silently, with a thoughtful look in her face.

Myona nodded. There was no need for words there.

"Alright. My kids are getting ready, they'll show up at any moment, so you'll have pals to play with tonight!", she told Valerie, cheerfully.

The young girl looked pleased, yet shyly.

"She's adorable", Hazel said to the proud parents, who were smiling with joy.

"She's a blessing", Myona said, lovingly. "How old are your children, Hazel?"

"Athina's almost eight, and Derek is four. We wanted to enjoy our first daughter before starting to look for the sibling"

"It's reasonable. With the hard work they give us…", Cage said, smiling.

"Yes, they give some work… but they are adorable and worth it"

Right then, several footsteps came running down the stairs, making some fuss. A light-haired girl appeared, with a blonde boy holding her hand. They were introduced to Myona and Cage by a proud Hazel, and then appeared a sixteen-year-old girl with brown hair and a bandanna tied up around her wrist, for some unknown fashion sense.  
>"Did you hire a nanny?", Myona asked, surprised. "If we were going to be such a nuisance, we would have just come for a coffee"<p>

"Don't be silly!", Hazel chuckled, funnily. "She's Jess, one of Alen's gym trainees. She doesn't mind helping us from time to time"

"Hi", Jess greeted them, smiling lightly. She was overall serious, but tried to look cheerful. "I don't mind looking at the kids… don't worry"

Myona felt embarrassed. "No, please, don't misunderstand me. It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I thought that we were more trouble than what we are worth"

"How can you say that?", Hazel nagged Myona, embarrassed. "I wouldn't have invited you if I thought that way!"

"Then, I'll go with the kids", Jess said, smiling.

As she walked into the living room, the kids –that were already introducing themselves and chatting- gathered around Jess, happily.

"That was a good idea, I have to admit", Cage said, chuckling.

Right then, Alen came down the stairs. He still had a broad back and a developed body, but those were the remainings of his gym training back in his teens. He had retired from the competitions a while after he decided to stay in Mars, due to an injury, and had been a gym instructor since.

He got into the room and greeted the couple. Even if he tried his best to look fine, something within him was toubling him. He tried his best to make it the least obvious he could.  
>He never felt too well around Hazel's friends, mostly because they've been involved in the incident that killed his sister. Unlike Hazel, he holded a grudge against the BIS members, especially Ares –when he was alive- and Myona.<p>

Hazel smiled, trying to make everyone feel comfortable. "Well, let's go to dinning room. Dinner's almost ready"

They followed her into the dinning room, and soon, everyone was gathered around the table, helping themselves. The dinner went well, taking friendly about common places. Once the kids finished eating, they disappeared from the table, eager to play with Jess.

The grown-ups stared at each other, as if they hadn't been in contact for a while. It was as if they found themselves naked after the kids left. So much exposure in front of people you hadn't seen in a while…

"How's your arm doing now, Cage?", Hazel asked with a smile, trying to break that icy atmosphere.

Cage smiled. "It's much better. Thanks for asking"

"That's how I met him again, do you remember, Alen?", she asked her husband, trying to make him more sociable. "I helped Dr Wobart when he came to the Hospital because he had fallen down and some heavy boxes fell over his arm"

"Oh, I remember you told me, now", Alen replied, smiling.

"I was quite shocked when I saw you there… I wasn't expecting to see you!"

"Yes, you looked quite puzzled", Hazel said, chuckling. "Apart of being in pain, that is"

"I mean… I knew you were a nurse, but I never thought of finding you right there!", Cage laughed, entertained. "I guess the surprise helped me to forget the pain I felt until then"

"Yeah, and I couldn't recognize you with the beard!", Hazel stated, cheerfully. "I knew I knew the person, but I couldn't tell from where!"

The couples laughed, finding the memory entertaining. They kept on chatting about their lives and businesses.

Myona and Cage's delivery company was running quite well, and it would be doing better if the UNSF hadn't banned civilian space-travel six years ago, after a small rebellion in Jupiter, with Martian aid. They had been keeping an eye on the planets, waiting for the moment to show up and take control of the situation. It was even rumoured that Earth itself had started the rebellion, or that it was behind it in some way, but nothing came out of that, and they were proclaimed (almost by themselves) as the protectors of peace and justice in the universe. Space travel had been greatly controlled after the Aumann Incident, and there had been regular bans, but after the rebellion, it became forbidden.

Many lives had been severely damaged with that course of action. Again, many lives were lost, for an invented cause. The number of orphans and invalids rose again greatly. Hope seemed so distant… just like those past days. A few things were different, but most of the situation was the same. It seemed like only their ages, appearances and circumstances had changed.

Alen and Hazel looked quite the same, despite the ten-year span time that had gone through. A calm expression was reflected on Hazel's eyes, while Alen's seriousness became clearer.

Cage and Myona looked more mature than them, on the other hand. Cage's beard was something that made him look wise, somehow, and trustworthy. Myona now kept her long hair tied up in a single braid.

The children were now happy, playing together as if they had been friends since their birth, under Jess' cautious look. But once Valerie knew that that slim, brown-haired girl was a gymnast in training, she bugged her to show her some of her gym skill, and so, she ended up being more of a new toy for them rather than their watcher.

Myona stared at the kids, smiling. "Are you sure we aren't being a nuisance to her?"

"Of course not! If it would be like that, she wouldn't have accepted to help us", Hazel replied, quickly. "It's no trouble at all"

"She's good", Cage said, even if he knew nothing about gymnastics. "She seems so agile"

"She could be better, if she hadn't overtrained by herself", Alen recalled, annoyed. "She's getting back in action, after a long recovery from a nasty fall"

"That's sad", Myona stated, pitifully.

"Yes, it is… but who else apart from us could say that life's not fair?", Alen stated, determined.

Again, silence filled the room.

"Well, there's no use of getting depressed over the things we know quite well and by heart", Hazel said, strongly. "Why don't you tell us a bit more about your business, guys?"

Cage and Myona stared at each other. While Alen looked the same, Hazel was like another person to them. Sure of herself, much stronger, much capable… quite different than what they recalled her.

Rather than following her studies to become an Arquitect, she switched careers and became a nurse, to everyone's surprise. Alen, on the other hand, kept on training and ended up becoming a gymnastics coach for a Martian club. He didn't have many paths left once the interplanetary flights were banned.

Cage and Myona decided to run an errands business, since it was what Cage knew best, and something he enjoyed. Myona became used to it quickly, and loved it as much as Cage did. They were their own bosses, the ones who wrote their own destiny.

Slowly, without realizing it, the former BIS members stopped seeing each other, and it was from time to time when they realize that someone was missing, or that it had been a while since they last heard about some of their former mates. They all regretted it, but no one could help it. They were all in their own businesses, trying to make things better, the best they could.

So, when Cage got into the Hospital and found Hazel working there, it was quite a shock, but a nice surprise, as well.

One of the few things that passed through his mind while greeting her after all those years was the certainty that Ares would have been delighted to see her like he found her. Hazel looked so fresh and natural, with a gentle smile in her lips, and the determination of the grown-ups. She didn´t look troubled at all, and that was refreshing and nice to see in her.

After the doctors took care of his bruised arm, they agreed to meet with their families, to remember old times… And that was how they ended up in Hazel's house.

"I wonder how everyone else is doing…", Myona said, smiling. "It's been ages since I last saw them"

"What about Semyl?", Hazel asked, surprised. "I thought you got in contact with her rather frequently"

"Yes, we used to send e-mails frequently, but then each one started to get busy in our own businesses. Last thing I knew, she was helping at the orphanage with Razma"

"Oh, my God, Razma!", Hazel smiled, in fond rememberance. "I knew those two would end up together… they are like flesh and meat"

"They still aren't together, _per__se_", Myona explained. "But I hope they'll make up their mind some day"

Suddenly, a piano melody could be heard, filling the entire house. Myona felt slighty unease, yet touched. There was something about the melody, or rather the way it was played, that reminded her of her brother. She started following the music, and soon found Hazel's older daughter at a piano keyboard connected to a PC, with the rest of the kids staring at her in awe.

Myona clapped, touched, once the melody was over. The young Athina turned back, puzzled.

"It's alright, honey, don't be so shy", Hazel encouraged her daughter, smiling proudly.

The girl looked down, embarrassed, her cheeks bright pink.

Myona walked next to her and knelt down, so she could feel closer to her. "You are a great piano player, you shouldn't be ashamed of that"

"Thanks", the girl mumbled. "It's only that I'm not that used to have people around listening to me, apart than my parents, my teacher and Jess"

"But I'm like part of the family, so that's why I don't count", the teenager said, chuckling.

"Anyway, you shouldn't feel ashamed. It was a lovely piece", Myona went on. "How did you know that you wanted to play this instrument?"

Athina thought for a while. "I don't know. Piano and violin are my favorite instruments, but it's easier to practise piano with a PC, so that's how I ended up with it", she explained, now feeling better with the stranger.

Hazel stared at the scene, touched. She was feeling so proud of her little girl. Cage was a bit clueless, but he also found it remarkably good the fact that someone else could play a digital piano with such skill as his departed friend. Only Alen was uncomfortable at the entire situation, and he couldn't tell why.

"I hope I'll be able to listen to you again, some time, Athina", Myona said, smiling. "And don't think about quitting your piano classes, you are good"

The girl smiled proudly. "I won't!", she said, before leaving with her brother and Valerie to some other part of the house.

Myona stared back at her husband and friends. "What a delighting child she is", she commented. "Both of them are so cute!"

"Thanks", Hazel thanked, smiling broadly.

Again, seeing Hazel like that was like a kind of miracle. Myona felt that her brother had had the right to see her like that, but life had another plans for him.

"Alright, let's go and have some coffee, don't you think?", Hazel asked, since everyone remained silent. She felt awkward, but someone had to enlighten things up. Especially since Alen wasn't proving to be of much help tonight.

"Alright, I'll help you with it", Myona offered.

"Hey, Alen, how's gymnastics going?", Cage asked him, trying to be friendly. "I think you don't have much troubles, being originally from Earth"

Alen finally seemed interested in the conversation. "Oh, fine, thanks for asking", he said, smirking. "I never regained my full shape, but yes, it was easier for me to compete here rather than on Earth, but I couldn't do much since in Earth I had already been replaced, and I wasn't accepted by the Martian federation because I wasn't a Martian, so I had no choice but to compete internally, and to become a trainer. And then, interplanetary flights became banned, so I got stucked here… apart from the fact that Hazel had everything here, you see. But I don't think it turned out badly…"

"You are a lucky man", Cage complimented him, patting him on the back. "Your kids are wonderful, and Hazel's a great person… It's so good to see her smiling like that. She's like another person… Don't let her loose that"

"I'll try", Alen replied, uncomfortable. Something kept on troubling him, even if he didn't know what it really was. Why those pieces of advice, that he hadn't even asked for? Why had they appeared in their life, once again? Couldn't they just decline the invitation?

Cage noticed that he wasn't wanted there, but there was no thing he could do to escape from that place without looking suspicious and unkind. He would have to act as if he had never noticed anything.

"Hey, why don't you tell me more about gymnastics?", Cage finally asked, rubbing his neck nervously. "I mean, with Myona we are trying to decide on an activity for our Valerie, but we can't reach an agreement. I would want her to take up piano, just like your daughter, but she insists that it would be better if she takes up ballet…"

"I'd gladly try to help, but why those two rather different choices?"

"Well… I thought about the piano as a homage to a friend of mine… and she says ballet for the same reason… it's a long, boring story", Cage explained, omitting the fact that that friend meant Ares, just in case.

"Well, it's strange… but we can go and chat with Jess, who can give you a better idea of female gymnastics"

"Alright, let's go"

(/)

"Auntie Cynthia!", the childish cries welcomed the Diplomat, as soon as she got into Elian and Meredy's home.

Cynthia knelt down to hug her god-children, Katie and Nicholas, who clinged to her neck joyfully. She barely had time to hug Meredy when they came after her to beg her to join their games and tell her all the things that had happenned to them since the last time she saw them.

For an hour and a half, Cynthia stopped being the Diplomat, and became the troublemaker child she had once been, making more fuss than the children. She played with them, laid over the floor with them, chase them, and told them stories from her childhood, which she felt so distant now that she was a grown-up. She watched TV with them, and enjoyed the cartoons as if she was just another child.

Meredy and Elian watched her from afar, touched. Cynthia looked quite different than when she got into the house, tidy and serious. She laughed loudly, her hair was a mess, and her clothes weren't as tidy as they were supposed to be. But she was happy.

Her married friends felt pity for her, since she was still single, and they knew she would make a great mother. They also noticed that something was troubling her. A dark shadow seemed to be over her.

Since it was a week-day, the kids had to leave her sooner than what they wanted, and went to sleep under protest, after making Cynthia promise that she would visit them sooner. Only after that, they left obediently, as their parents told them.

"Please, excuse them. They had been counting the days to see you", Meredy said, as she returned from her children's room.

"Oh, it's fine! I was eager to see them again!", the brown-haired woman said, smiling weakly, leaning over a two bodies sofa. She was exhausted, but satisfied. "They are so beautiful, so full of life", she said, turning taciturn.

"There was a time when you too were full of energy", Elian stated, worried.

Cynthia made a sad grin. "So it's too obvious, isn't it?", she asked, trying to cheer herself up. "That I'm beaten, I mean. I'm not done with, yet…"

The married couple hold hands, looking at their tired friend, concerned. It was sad to see Cynthia feeling as if there was no way out. Maybe she needed another thing to think about to look as they recalled her. Meredy thought that a little bit of nonsense chat could help, and so, she tried her idea out.

"It's gossip time!", Meredy exclaimed, enthusiastically. "I can't keep it for myself anymore... You won't believe this one! Matt ended up being gay!"

Cynthia rose an eyebrow, startled. That was just imposible. "You say gay... but gay as a happy person, or gay as... gay?"

Evidently, when she was off-duty, the formal vocabulary disappeared from her mouth. Or it was just the surprise that lead her to that kind of statement. Matt had always been a terrible skirt-chaser, and she knew he acted as some girl's gay friend -or tried to-, but she never thought he would get that far.

"Gay as the latter one", Elian teased her, playing with his wife's hair.

Cynthia let go a deep sigh. "I'll have to see it to really believe it…"

"Then, pay a visit to Aretha at the studio. He's her stylist, assistant, everything"

Cynthia's eyes and mouth opened wide, astonished. "No, thanks… I'll believe you, then. I always thought that those two would end up together… but well, not like that"

"Yes, it was a real surprise when we got to know"

"Just look at me, and tell me if it's not a surprise!", the young Diplomat exclaimed.

"Have you seen Aretha's show?", Elian asked her, funnily.

"I haven't had the strength… nor the time, to finish watching a single show of hers", Cynthia admitted, disgusted. "I mean… too much gossip. She must feel in Heaven with it. She still keeps sending me invitations to her show, but I happen to _loose_ them everytime", she explained, mischeviously. "My assistant is so reckless…", she said, sarcastically.

"Not that I can blame you", the young man admitted, laughing.

The three of them turned silent, smiling at each other. But Cynthia got worried again soon.

"Cynt, what's troubling you?", Meredy finally asked, worried.

Cynthia sighed. She knew they would notice. And she knew she needed to talk about her pain with someone. Having the opportunity right in front of her, she wasn't going to let it go.

"I'd always been somewhat of a rebel. Then, I knew I shouldn't show everyone how I really was, and played the sceptic and sarcastic type. College came, and I've woven many dreams, that my job ended up annihilating, because there's no better word than that to describe my dreams' whereabouts. I tried to remain true to myself, while pretending to be too strong and intelligent to believe in childish things. Now, I'm a full-time sceptic... who has an overly obedient and realistic secretary by her side", Cynthia complained, annoyed with her life. "Yes, I needed some time off, to see you, guys, so I got to remember what life was like before I condenmed myself to this slavery"

Elian and Meredy, holding hands, stared at their hopeless friend. That wasn't the Cynthia they knew. Something was wrong, and she had to become her old self someway... but they didn't know how to help her.

"I'm a bitter, defeated, already tired woman… and I'm not 30 yet…", she complained, in a whisper.

Meredy dropped Elian's hand and run towards her friend, angstly. She hugged her silently, while her mind was in an emotional turmoil. Meredy couldn't tolerate it anymore. That one sitting in front of her wasn't Cynthia, but her shadow. Cynthia wouldn't give up that soon. Alright, Cynthia's job was quite different to anything that she – a simple Primary School teacher – could imagine. But it couldn't kill Cynthia like that. That couldn't happen.

"It's not like that!", Meredy finally let go, anxiously. "This isn't how you are supposed to be! Where's the girl that got into an unknown OF while running away from an attack? Where's the girl that used to oppose to our Earth-loving teachers back at High School? Where's the young woman that went against her family's wishes and became a Diplomat? And where's the strength that makes her oppose her superiors when they are being just plain stupid?"

Cynthia stared at her friend, teary-eyed. She was grateful for that description she made of herself… but it only made things worse. Slowly, she said, "It's all gone… that's what I'm looking for now, and I can´t seem to find it"

"You are just disheartened, but this will end up sooner or later… it's just something temporary… Don't give up, this isn't like you"

"It's incredible… when I was 17 I could lecture my cousin about what she had to do with her life… and now I don't know what to do with mine…", the young diplomat remembered, wishing that the old, glorious day would return. It was in times like this when the past looked sexy and bright, compared to her gray-to-black present.

"Maybe you need to spend some days with Hazel, and you'll get back all your energy"

"I doubt it… Alen is too jealous and I don't really get on well with him, for some unknown reason. That, and my weird schedule made us apart", Cynthia said, defeated once more. How she allowed Alen to separate them, that was something that she still couldn't tell. If she hadn't been working so much, she would have realized sooner, and then, she would have done something about it at the correct time.

Now, it was too late. For everything. That was what she thought.

Meredy hugged her friend silently, while Elian thought of a way to lighten them up. But it was going to be hard. He also needed to see the Cynthia he knew. For Meredy's and for Cynthia'a sake.

He coughed, trying to get their attention. "I think that you are just listening to your biological clocks needles moving… and you are still young for that! I think you are just in a normal analytical phase… only that you aren't 20 anymore… but you aren't 30 yet. You should be ashamed of making a fuss about that, when you have to deal with a planet's independence at work", he teased her, smiling.

Cynthia rose her head, surprised. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was just something that was going on in her uncounscious, that popped up whenever she had some free time. That was one of the reasons why she hadn't any of it.

"Do you think so?"

"He's right… you have to explode some way or the other… too bad that it's at home", Meredy said, pleased with her husband's occurrence. "Well, what are friends for, if not trying to help each other when the other is down?"

"They make a free psychologist", Cynthia said, smiling between her last sobs. She stared at her friends, and thought that they made a perfect couple. Even if she could feel jealous of Meredy, she knew that she could be too troublesome for someone like Elian, who needed his time to come over with a good way out. She stayed silent, realizing that she wanted to meet someone that could treat her well and look after her.

"What are you thinking about now?", he asked her. "I hope it's not the begging of the angsty phase 2"

Cynthia smiled, confidently. "No, I won't grant you the honor… I have to get ready for the independence of a planet", she smiled, in her distinctive way that showed equal parts of seriousness and silliness.

Ethan embraced Meredy lovingly, and she rested her head over his chest, smiling proudly. Cynthia wasn't completely lost… just a bit tired. There was still hope ahead to see her battling against the diplomats in her full glory, once again.

(/)

Dinner had already ended at Hazel's home, and the guys were talking about some trivial thing like sports leagues, while the women were back in the kitchen, taking care of the dishes and getting the coffee ready, even if Hazel would have wanted Myona to stay back in the dinning room.

"So… Athina?", Myona asked, smiling.

"Aha", Hazel just replied, taking some glasses to the dish-washer. "So… Valerie, uh?"

Many years had gone by, and Hazel had changed much, but she still kept on being the most defensive person on the Universe, in Myona's opinion.

Myona smiled broadly. She was expecting something like that, sooner or later. She was still the Hazel she had known.

Hazel stared at Myona, smiling lightly. She knew what the purple-haired young woman was thinking of.

Myona smiled back, sighing. "Yes… we needed him to be with us in a way…"

"Me too", Hazel said, still remembering the Athenea frame that had saved her life in a way. "We made a small pact with Alen: none of our kids would carry the name of our deceased loved ones… We already have them in our hearts. But with Athina was different…"

"I guess it's one of those life-long scars, ain't it?"

"I supposse… or just our strong wish to have our departed ones together with us"

"Didn't he complain?"

"No, because I've never told him the frame's true name… or if I did, he didn't seem to remember… or that's what he made me believe"

Myona stayed silent, thinking that Hazel's relationship with Alen was based in many hidden feelings, but she wasn't someone that could say something against that. She herself had been a pile of secrets for everyone else. But now she knew that it wasn't something right to do.

"Hazel… I know I'm not the most indicate person to talk about this… but aren't you hiding many things to Alen?"

Hazel stared at her confused. "What else am I hiding him, apart from my former frame's name?", she asked, unable to understand her reasoning. "I have nothing to hide from him, but now I know that sometimes, you can't tell some other person the entire truth, because you can't remedy what has been done, and you hurt them badly", she explained, thoughtfully. "I'll give you a crystal clear example: I've told Alen that both you and your brother had been involved in the Bonaparte III incident. What came out of it? Nothing positive. Alen now knows who were behind his sister's death. I made him bitter, because he knows who to blame, but he can't do anything about it. What's okay about it? But at that moment I needed to tell him what I knew. Now, years after that, I wished I had kept my mouth shut"

Myona looked down. Now, that was why Alen stared at her coldly whenever she realized it. But he also looked cold at Cage, and at everyone from BIS.

"Can you understand me now?", Hazel asked her, softly. "I don't have anything to hide, but if I would have something like that, I would think it twice before talking. I don't want to hurt anyone more than what he or she already is"

Myona would have wanted to ask something more, but she heard the men coming to the kitchen, so she stayed silent.

It was time to leave. A dinner had been enough to make them all recall all those memories hidden under the carpet, and start wondering and thinking in "what if" scenarios, that would be interrupted by their children's needs.

After a quick coffee, Myona and Cage left, feeling strange, both for Hazel and for them. The meeting happened too quickly, they didn't have enough time to think about it. It was already in the past. They spent more time thinking about it, anticipating it, than what it really lasted.

Hazel, on the other hand, felt well, but tired. She needed to test herself, facing her past, and she had been victorious, for once. But it was too soon to claim victory, she already knew that, but couldn't help feeling okay about the dinner.

Alen was serious. Something was troubling him. Some nasty thoughts were taking over his mind. He tried to remain calm, but he couldn't.

Hazel, noticing that he was worried about something, hugged him, sweetly. "Thanks for tonight, darling. You were okay… you could have smiled a bit more, but you were okay"

"It was nothing, you don't have to thank me", he said, trying to sound natural.

But something was already bugging him. The piano melody, the friend's tribute, Myona's touched expression at Athina…

No, things weren't going to be the same for him since that night on…

(/)

Cynthia walked into her hotel room cautiously, trying not to make much noise to avoid waking up Alessa Janthurs, her assistant. However, she found her fully awake when she opened the door, taking a look at some memos and notes.

"Didn't I tell you to have a good night's sleep?", Cynthia asked her, annoyed. "I knew I was going to return late from my dinner…"

"I know, but I just couldn't sleep properly", the blonde woman replied, still reading some of their notes. "I want to be able to be helpful in a way, so I want to remember every little detail, every thing could be helpful"

"Sorry to ruin your enthusiasm, but don't you remember from your College days –which aren't still over- that you can't keep everything in your mind? Something will surely leak…", the brown-haired Diplomat said, taking off her shoes and kicking them close to her bed.

"I know that… it's just that I couldn't sleep, and I thought that this would be better rather than wasting my time, waiting for the sleep to come", she explained, annoyed.

At times like that one, she hated being Miss Stack's assistant. When she first leant that Cynthia was going to be her tutor during her internship, she was delighted, but the feeling vanished quickly after meeting her. Cynthia was too disorganized, and too passionate about everything. She let words go out from her mouth before thinking well before talking, she argued with her superiors constantly… It was as if she did everything on purpose to oppose her superiors. However, she got results, from time to time, or was helpful. That was why she still remained in the government. But what surprised her greatly was that Cynthia hadn't already dispatched her, since they clashed way too frequently.

Cynthia smiled lightly at her companion, guessing some of the girl's feelings. "I know… I used to do that myself… Sometimes, I still do, thinking that details could bring out a whole new world for us… but I've already hit my head against the wall too many times, or I have been disappointed by the higher circles… You are still too soft and innocent, you are still fresh… which is a great thing, in my opinion. I couldn't preserve my own innocence and hopeful attitude through this years, and I ended up developing my sarcasm and rebellious side even more to compensate my loss. It's nothing personal against you, I'm not decided to make you run away, annoyed at everything", she explained, tired.

Alessa sighed, trying to put some order in her mess of papers. The only idea of ending up bitter and sarcastic like her superior too young was a big ghost for her, a ghost that she kept on attacking. She was already more serious than Cynthia. Was the path already closed for her? Whatever, Cynthia became what she was now because of the higher-ups, according to her…

"Do you think we'll be able to do something for Mars?", Alessa asked, discouraged.

"I just hope so… we have to win a little battle, at least…", Cynthia wished, tired.

/

Author notes: Alright, welcome to ZoE: Countdown's long awaited, public claimed sequel! Alright, no one waited, no one asked for it, only my subconscious to get rid of this and focus on another things. Whatever. I hope you'll enjoy this one as much as I enjoy writing it.

One thing that hooked me up to FoM was its cast, it's one of the few games that made me care so much about it, and that made me like almost everyone. Hence, the fanfics. On the other side, introducing my own characters in that universe is kind of easy, and I got to love them just as the cannon (alright, they are mine, who doesn't love one's own work? ;) ).

Well, whatever the reasons that led me to write this sequel, I hope I won't disappoint everyone. Writing sequels is a real challenge, either in the commercial side or the fans' side, maybe that's why I'm giving this a try. Maybe it's even more challenging for a fandom, because you come from another fanwork, so you have to write something as worthy as the first one to keep readers enthusiastic about it. I don't know, it's just a thought that happen to cross my mind while writing this notes (which you may have already guess that I kind of like writing). Again, I hope you'll enjoy this work as I enjoy writing it, and I hope it won't be disappointing. Maybe some parts will end up like "hey, this needed some more work, a little bit of more background", but I'll try to pull them the best I can. I'm restricting myself in the number of chapters and pages per chapter, so I don't end up writing another "beast" like Countdown.

The talk about choosing either learning to play the piano or ballet for Valerie, Myona's daughter, has its base in the sort of game prequel "Tomorrow will be a brigther day", where a certain friend of Ares and Myona was a ballet dancer, while Ares played the piano. Just to wrap up things nicely, in case you haven't read that small fic/have completely forgotten it (I don't blame you, hahaha).

Well, I hope you'll stay around for this second ride… every comment is deeply appreaciated, and don't hesitate to point out weird lines or whatever you find convenient. See you!


	2. Chapter 2: Arrangements

Chapter 2: Arrangements.

The day started early for Jess Foster, Alen's gym trainee. The young woman worked part-time at her parents' café, the Blue Bay. It was a small, fancy café facing Hellespontos Bay, hence the name.

Jess stared through one of the windows while she waited for the oven to get warm enough to start baking the cakes and biscuits that went with their breakfast offers, thoughtfully. Soon, her older –by one year- "sister", Anita, would arrive, and they would be able to open the café and run it until Mara and Tony, her tutors, arrived, and they would leave for school.

It was mean to call her tutors, since they had raised her up, and allowed her to take gymnastics and all, but it was the legal word, since she hadn't been adopted by them, unlike Anita, because the adoption paperwork seemed to get lost every time they started. But she loved them as if they had been her biological parents. In a way, they were so to her, since she had no idea about who her biological parents could be. That's why her mind switched the terms so easily, having almost the same meaning to her. She didn't waste time trying to figure out who her biological parents could be and why they had decided to abandon her. Most surely they had been killed in some raid or encounter, or maybe she had just been the product of some "accident" during a torrid, one-time-only sexual intercourse. Whatever the case was, she wasn't interested in knowing, now that she had a family that had taken her in, and let her have a couple of privileges, even.

On a table, not too far from her, a young couple was already having breakfast, chatting animated about their day to come.

"I think we should try to find some hot topic to amuse everyone… I don't want to do an article on some over-used, overdone topic", the young woman said, enthusiastically.

"We all want to amaze everyone, we'll have it tough", the boy said, smiling.

"Can't you think in grand for a little while?", she teased him, laughing. "That's where the challenge lies… We shouldn't do what everyone else is doing, even if that's the easy way out"

"I was just being realistic", he said, smiling back. "We wouldn't be long-time friends if you weren't the dreamer and I weren't the realistic"

"That's true, but you still haven't learnt to let your ideas run wild… and that's something a journalist needs to create its own opportunity, when all the doors are wide shut for us"

He smiled lightly. Hearing her talking that way was one of the things that he loved from her. They were long-time friends, but he was sure that she was aware of his feelings towards her, as he was aware of hers. If none of them made a move to become a couple was because they were afraid of loosing everything they had in the world: each other. With the interplanetary travel banned six years ago, the then sixteen year old Earthian high-schoolers Patricia and Jack had to learn to live in their own, as the interplanetary ban caught them during a school trip to the "poor neighbouring Mars", and hadn´t been able to return to their homes ever since. Even if they kept in touch with their families over the Internet and satellite communications, they were still alone in the world, and they become more attached to each other than ever. Until then, they had been regular companions. From the ban on, they became inseparable. So inseparable, that both of them were studying to become journalists, even if Pat –as everyone called her, lovingly- thought that Jack was just following her around for the sake of being with her.

"What are you thinking about?", she asked him, breaking his dreamy atmosphere.

"Oh, nothing in particular. Silly things"

She smiled lightly, understanding rather well what was going on with him.

"Alright, nothing's wrong, let's decide what we are going to do with our project", he said, in haste, before she could say anything.

"I got it!", Pat exclaimed enthusiastically, her blue eyes shinning naughtily. "I think we should try to interview a Martian representative, rather than an Earthian ambassador!"

"But we are from Earth…"

"That's why! All the better! A report about the Martian ideals, written by Earth people… that's something out of the ordinary. All the other Mars-stucked Earthians will try to interview the Ambassador, so we should just go and interview 'the enemy', as they would called the Martians"

"Why don't we write about something more innocent, like the pollution in the artificial lakes, or the effect of Metatron on the devastated Vascilian lands?"

"Because we would be idiots if we let go this opportunity like living where the annual UNSF-Earth-Mars reunion is taking place!"

Jack sighed. She had already won, even if he wasn't that convinced and enthusiastic about the idea of interviewing the trouble-maker Martian representative. But he had to admit that it was a turn of a screw.

"And, what do you think?", she asked, anxiously.

He shrugged. "I think it's useless that you ask me. You know you always find a way to make your argument stand strongly against whatever lies ahead"

She smiled broadly, proudly. With a jump, she stood up and rushed to his seat, only to hug him. "You are spoiling me", she admitted, laughing.

"Sadly, I like to spoil you", he teased her.

But only a small part of that statement was true, and not just a joke.

* * *

><p>"I wonder why Zoe isn't dating Dr Hermin yet…", the green-haired nurse said, once she got into the nurses' room.<p>

Hazel, wearing a light green uniform, raised her head when she heard Presea talking. "I don't know… She may not like him"

"Then, I'll take him for her! He's quite a catch!"

Hazel smirked, as she knew that Presea would take any man. However, the short, busty woman was redeeming herself, as she hadn't been wandering from a man to the other for quite some time. Maybe old habits die hard… she still wore the short, revealing summer nurse uniform the entire year, with that shortened skirt of hers, that made a miniskirt out of the obligatory knee-length skirt. Hazel wondered how it was that no one ever punished her for attire, while the rest of the nurses used the normal, long trousers uniform in winter. Hazel just wanted to believe that no favours (of any kind) were involved in that.

"Why do you look at me like that?", Presea complained, annoyed.

Hazel could be diplomatic and play dumb, but that wasn't something that flew in her veins. "It's just that you seem to jump at every guy you find… or at least you used to, since you are quite calm lately"

"Could it be the calm before the storm?", the green-haired nurse made fun of herself.

"Who knows? Only you can tell"

"Yeah, I guess so…", the nurse sighed, tired. "While the few guys around aren't sent to War again, we can be safe…"

Now Hazel sighed. War, battles… they have been living "in peace" for almost a decade now, but… everyone felt that that peace wouldn't resist much. Even now, everyone was waiting for another catastrophe to happen. Such was the atmosphere people at Mars breathed… they were so used to it, that many years of peace altogether seemed like an alarm sign to them.

"What are you two doing here, standing still?", a female voice interrupted Presea, friendly.

Hazel smiled, greeting Dr Zoe Wobart. A young woman, in her early thearties, was standing next to the door frame. She was a slim beauty, tall, with brown hair tied up in a ponytail, staring at the petite green-haired nurse with sharp eyes.

"Nothing. Catching up some breath before returning to my post", Presea explained, sighing. "Now that I have you here… can I ask you something?", she asked, playing innocent.

Zoe sighed, annoyed. "No… I already know what you want to know"

"Sometimes you are no fun, Zoe", she said, leaving the room.

Hazel smiled. "Just don't pay attention to her… she's a matchmaker at heart, even if she plays the 'ardent woman' façade"

Zoe sighed, once more. "It's alright… only that I don't want anyone to play matchmaker with me, that's all. I can take care of my love-life all by myself"

Hazel smiled lightly. "No one said you couldn't"

Zoe smiled back at the always smiling, calm nurse. "Have you ever had any worries, Hazel?", she asked her, out of the blue.

Hazel stared at her, shocked. "I think that what I have left to live won't be enough to talk about my dramas, Dr. Besides, I wouldn't call myself alive if I hadn't had any worries till today", she said, seriously. "Just why do you ask?"

Zoe apollogized whole-heartly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or anything like that. It's just that you are always so calm, and you share your smile so easily… you transmit a feeling of peace, in a way"

Hazel chuckled. "Well, thanks. It's the first time someone tells me something like that. It's quite an honor… and quite a change!", she said, smiling. "Well, now, I can't complain: I've got a job, a family, a home… now I'm fine, but I can assure you that I've been in the complete opposite situation not so long ago"

"It doesn't look like that", Zoe said, sighing. "I mean, you inspire such calmness that everyone would have said that you had had an easy life"

Hazel smirked, in rememberance. "I can assure you that my life was nothing but easy… but I'm happy if I can trick people into thinking that", she said, picking some pieces of clothes from a cabinet. "Well, it's time to go on with our rotiation, Doctor", she said, smiling.

Zoe Wobart smiled back. "Alright, Nurse, let's go back to work"

* * *

><p>"Breakfast's ready!", Mebius yelled, in haste.<p>

Soon, her family started showing up, first teenaged Lia, followed by her non-blood related siblings Grey and Ashley. Lastly, their father, Warren, showed up, while finishing up the knot of his tie.

Mebius sighed. "Any of you could remember to give me a hand to handle breakfast, couldn't you?"

"Not my fault, this one spends days at the bathroom!", Grey complained, pointing at Lia, who glared at him.

"I don't spend days, but I have to look alright if I don't want to be left behind by the other gals"

"Appearance isn't everything", Warren nagged her. "You should think less about make-up and clothes, and focus on your subjects, that I think that you aren't doing that well"

Grey sticked out his tongue at her, but it had been nothing but trouble.

"The same goes for you, young man", his father nagged him, too. "I don't want to hear that you've been found cheating on Maths or in any subject ever again"

"I didn't have the time I needed to study…"

"Oh, Goodness! It's just elementary school!", Lia interrupted the eight-year-old boy, taking her revenge. "What will you do when you get to High School, then?"

"Why don't you stop arguing?", Ashley, the youngest, pleaded. She just looked like Mebius, even if she was only six-years-old.

"Who told you to get into this conversation? Why don't you try to defend yourself from your bullies, crybaby?"

"They are many, I can't deal with all of them!", she complained, whinning. It didn't take her long enough to start crying at her brother's harshness.

"Oh, no, there she starts again!", he said, annoyed.

"She wouldn't be crying if you hadn't provoked her, idiot!", Lia said, hugging her little sister. "You should treat her well, she's a lady… Besides, why do you complain, if you enjoy bullying the little kids, acting like a knight in shinning armor for your sister?"

Now Grey was blushing, rather than provocative.

"Alright, we've had enough!", Mebius interrupted, frowning. "You are siblings, you should try to get along…"

"But she's not blood-related to us!", Grey insisted, pointing at Lia.

Lia sighed, annoyed. "Do you have to remind me that every single day of my life? You are such a brave young man", she said, mockingly.

"Grey, that's enough!", Warren said, annoyed. "She's your sister no matter what… how can you be that heartless?"

"He's jealous because she was already here before he came!", Ashley said, triumphantly. "I like Lia!"

"Yes, because you are a girl!", Grey insisted.

"Grey Lumenlux, if you don't reconsider your attitude, I'm going to come up with such a punishment that you'll regret having thought that way!", Mebius said, furiously.

Finally, Grey lowered his head, embarrassed. "Alright, I'm sorry", he mumbled, softly.

"I don't think you trully feel it if you say it that way", his mother scolded him, once more.

"Ok, I'm sorry!", the boy said, now in a proper tone of voice.

"Alright, we'll talk about this later. Now, get ready that the bus is already on its way to pick you up", she said, sadenned.

The kids got up from the table, silently. Mebius stared at her feet, angry with herself.

Warren touched her hand, gently, trying to comfort her. But she didn't look at him. He deeply believed that she had started going out with him and eventually married him because he had been the only man around that knew her well enough. If Deckson had been alive, the story would have been too different.

What a quaint situation. They had named their first-born child after Deckson Geyse, in a way, calling him Grey, and he ended up becaming quite a tyrant, rather than a peace-seeking person. He just hoped that he would change his attitude with time.

"Hey, they are kids, and kids are always cruel", he told her, trying to

"Just what did I do wrong?", she asked, "Why can't he accept him as his own?", she cried, hopeless.

"It's just a phase", Warren replied, trying to calm her down. "Wait a bit, and then, you'll see how he gets into fights to protect her, as if she ever needed that"

"But he's so mean now… I'm not used to boys, I guess"

"It's just his way to call the attention, being surrounded by girls"

"Maybe you are right…", Mebius said, thoughtfully. Still, she couldn´t be convinced that her boy was that mean.

Warren tried to caress her, but she, instintively, shoved his hand off, lost in her thoughts. Just as his words couldn´t convince her, his attempts of being a lonving husband were spoiled by her lately distant attitude. It was as if she wasn't remotely satisfied with her present.

Warren sighed, already knowing that he wasn´t good enough for her. He should have doubted a little more when she accepted his marriage proposal, and when she decided to have kids. Maybe she liked him at the beginning, but routine and aging were mining their fragile relationship. He decided not to press any further. He would stay there, that was the best he could do.

"I'm gonna get the car ready", he said, heading to the garage.

Mebius nodded, silently. Even if she didn´t want to do it, she couldn't help but comparing how her life would have been if her first husband hadn't been killed, and she hadn't lost her first child.

* * *

><p>"What's wrong?", Jess asked Alen, catching him completely off-guard and lost in his thoughts.<p>

Alen blinked several times while shaking his head, trying to put himself together as fast as he could. "Nothing"

"You don't think about 'nothing' with that lost attitude of yours", Jess insisted, sitting next to him. It was time for her to take a break from her gymnastics training, especially if Alen wasn't paying attention to her routine.

"I was just thinking about my family", he finally said, hoping that she wouldn't ask anything else.

Jess was an orphan, raised by a caring couple who couldn't have children and had already adopted an older girl, her fate-sister Amy. For some unknown reason, the paperwork had never been ready for them to adopt her, and so she kept on living with them, under their custody. They had a small, comfy restaurant called "The Blue Bay", where she helped them part-time, after school and her gym training.

Considering her background, Alen thought that she wouldn't ask any other questions if he mentioned the magic word "family" to her.

But he was wrong.

"Oh, what's wrong? You sure have a dream-like family", she said, smiling. "Your kids are adorable, and Hazel is a great person, she really loves you"

"That's what I want to believe", Alen said in disbelief.

Jess sighed, annoyed. "It's incredible how you, that have built your own family, see ghosts were there isn't anything wrong at all! Hazel loves you, as well as your kids. I can't understand where you got the idea that she doesn't love you"

Alen needed to talk, and so, he decided it was time to share his thoughts with someone else. Even if that someone was his young trainee. "Do you remember that family that came to dinner at home the other day?"

"Yes, what's wrong with them?", she said, curiously. Then, an idea formed in her head. Her mouth opened with awe. "Don't tell me that they are swingers?"

"Oh, not, for God's sake!", Alen said, annoyed. "Can't you think in anything more real? What's more, won't you let me talk about it?"

"Sorry", she apologized, staying quiet.

"Well, the woman was involved in my sister's murder, as well as her now dead brother, who sort of went out with Hazel in the past, before she knew about the real him"

Jess stayed silent, thougfully. After a while, she said, "Sorry, but I find it more credible to think that they are swingers"

Alen sighed annoyed. "Can't you take matters seriously for once?"

Jess rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry! I do believe you, but it's just an unfortunate coincidence… And then we have to say that this is a small world"

"Take it or leave it, that's the true"

"Alright, but I still see no evidence against Hazel. She knew the woman, what's wrong with it? If she hadn't known her, she wouldn't have invited her to your house, don't you think? And if that guy is dead, what's the matter? Don't you still have feelings for your first love?"

"Hazel is –was- my first love"

"Oh, I see"

"What I mean is… why did she have to invite them home? We were fine without them… and that woman stared a lot at Athina, as if she was looking for something in my daughter… could it be that she's not really my daughter? What if she got pregnant of him before he died, before she started going out with me? Or while she was dating me? I have to think this way because that woman was too interested in my Athina…"

Jess interrupted him, annoyed. "How can you say that? Don't you trust Hazel? Besides… Athina looks a lot like you! She has her mother's calm behavior, but she has the same eyes as you, the same expression!"

"He looked a lot like me… Sometimes I think that she started dating me because I reminded her of what he could have been… like if I was a second chance in life"

"Can't you think that maybe she didn't have any feeling for him, especially with him being the murderer of her parents?". Jess knew the entire story, as Alen had told her, some day that both of them decided to exchange tragedies at a coffee table.

"Then, why did she took her home?"

"She tried to be sociable for once in her life, can't you see it that way? Weren't they fellow comrades in the past?"

"Can't she just leave that part of her past behind and live her present with me?"

"Could you try to stop seeing ghosts were there aren't any, or to boicot your present because you are still resentful from your past? You are asking too much of her, just as if she asked you what I have just asked you to do"

Alen tried to think in some way to get out of the conversation. Jess wasn't going to favour his point of view. Maybe it was some genre sympathy.

"Alen… don't think like that. You'll throw away in a moment what took you too much to build", Jess warned him, maturely.

But it was already too late. The idea was now fixed in his mind, and wouldn't let him in peace.

* * *

><p>Cynthia walked from a side to the other of the waiting room slowly, yet anxiously, while waiting for some Earth representative to come. She stared throw the window, and could see the street slowly getting crowded by newscasters, journalists, photographers and the like, as well as security personel, both from the Hotel and from each delegation.<p>

She was always nervous before a meeting, even if she had already attended a few before. She wanted to do things well and seriously, like her comrades, but she always gave them her personal touch that scandalized her colleagues, but that took them to the mouth of the general public for a while. At least, they would remember her for what she said, even if it wasn't politically correct. Maybe that way she could convince someone to fight for her cause, at least…

She sighed, wondering why things couldn't be easier for her. Being the odd one out in the small circle of Martian diplomats hurt her, even if she pretended to be proud of her provocative attitude. But she wanted to achieve things, and that attitude wouldn't help her... but staying quiet at the back wouldn't do much for her dream, either.

It all started at some Hellespontos' representatives meeting. She was an assistant to another diplomat at that time, and tried to act as professional as she could. But after a couple of meetings where nothing could be achieved, and where the diplomats weren't really interested in getting rid of Earth's influence, she considered that something had to be done. She recalled Ares' old speech, when she had been studying at her grade course –she wondered how would Ares react if he was to know that he was now an object of study at University. She would also have to tell Myona whenever she saw her, since she had also studied her speech at the HBC when facing Zephyrs' people-, when he said that Martians couldn't do much for themselves and needed to blame someone else for their misfortunes. She wasn't going to fall into that category. Shyly, she asked to talk, and she was given the space, mostly out of curiosity, since no one believed that a recently-graduated diplomat who was merely an assistant could say something important there, but just a bunch of idealistic propaganda.

In part, they were right. Looking back at that meeting, her speech was full of naïvete, but it also showed them that she was fed up of their burocracy and their inactivity. It had been like a bucket of cold water thrown over their heads. Not because they didn't know how things were, but rather because a foolish young woman was telling them what they really were, without any repairs. She just said everything she thought about them. Her youth and idealism were to blame, but some saw potential under that words driven by rage. Others just wanted her to fail. Whatever the case was, almost everyone agreed that Cynthia was to become one of the Hellespontos representatives. Especially since she knew so well how to handle things, that she could criticize them so easily.

She couldn't believe her luck –or lack of it. Much sooner than what she could ever expect, her troublemaker attitude was notified to the other counties. Much like a planetary-sized boicott.

Many meetings like that one followed, her fame becoming more and more solid. But she got some small achievements in time. Given that, in the last meeting she was chosen as the Hellespontos Ambassador in front of the other counties and the Earth delegation… a huge burden over her shoulders was placed.

She did the best she could, trying to cope with her colleagues looking down at her. And with her own secretary being too negative about their course of action, she had to remain strong and hopeful, even if it was too difficult. Maybe it was a matter of time, until Alessa found out how bitter and negative their workplace was, and how a bit of fresh air could be useful for everyone. At this moment, Cynthia didn't know if she was doing the right thing. What she knew is that she had to face things differently.

"Alright, let's finally meet that old geezer that may still think that Martians look like that Roswell doll and that women must stay at home if they are decent enough", Cynthia said, sarcastically.

Alessa sighed, trying to understand her boss, if that could ever be possible. She admired her, at heart, but it was hard to admit it… since she had to do a great show out of everything to get something. The end doesn't justify the ways… even if everyone since Maquiavello seemed to think the opposite. So, she couldn't justify her boss' civilian-like behavior while being on-duty.

The door finally opened, and a young Earthian diplomat came from it. He was hardly what they were expecting.

A young man in his early-thirties, with short brown, wavy hair walked to them, with a friendly smile on his face. He looked like someone who could hold a chat with, rather than imposing his will.

"You must be the Hellespontos' representatives", he said. His deep voice showed a determined behavior and was full of pooliteness, thing that Cynthia was waiting to see how much it would last. "I'm Arthur Fayden, assistant to the Earth's ambassador", he introduced himself, finally, shaking their hands.

A firm, yet soft hand… Cynthia was feeling weird in front of that man. He was hardly what she had been expecting. And he wasn't wearing any kind of rings in his hands… She blushed for a second after she realized she had thought of him as a possible candidate… without knowing him for less than a minute. She wasn't in High School anymore, so what was wrong with her? She had already decided to bury her hormones for a while, until she could prove everyone that she was capable on her own way.

"I'm Cynthia Stack, and this is my assistant, Miss Alessa Harthurs", she introduced themselves, trying to dominate herself.

"It's a pleasure meeting you. Now, please take a seat", he told them, pointing a two-bodies sofa while he sat in front of a small table and left his folders and wares. Once they made themselves comfortable, he started talking seriously. "Now, I'm fearful to tell you that the Ambassador won't be able to grant you a personal interview as you had requested…"

"Just what I was expecting", Cynthia interrupted him, annoyed. "What was missing this time? A certificate of donated items through my life, my elbow's photograph? Which paper is not there?"

Arthur stared at her surprised. While he wanted to burst into laughter, he wasn't allowed to do such a thing. Seriously, he replied, "I knew you would be quite a challenge, Mrs Stack…"

"Excuse me for interrupting you once again, but it's Miss rather than Mrs. You would know it if you had read our basic paperwork. Please, don´t make me feel older than what I really am", she protested, annoyed.

"Sorry, I just took for granted that there was a Mr Stack around", Mr Fayden apologized, smiling lightly.

"Oh", she said, surprised. If he really believed that or not, she couldn't really tell, but at least he sounded convincing enough. "Then, what's missing?"

"Nothing. It's been a great solicitude, it's flawless"

Alessa smiled proudly, since she had done most of that paperwork.

"But the Ambassador is too busy in this short visit, so he can't give you the time you deserve…"

"But he can go and meet the older, male Ambassadors, right? Or is it that they are meeting at a night-club?"

Alessa started coughing, nervously. She was already foreseeing the end of her Diplomatic career without even starting it properly.

Arthur smiled. "You know that this conversation is being recorded, right?", he said, pointing at a camera over her heads.

"I supposed so, even if that's not so politically correct", Cynthia sighed. "However, that's why I'm here: because I'm too insistent, I say what everyone wants to say but can't do it because it's not the correct thing to do, and because I'm the best person to blame if things go wrong", she replied, sincerely.

Arthur stared at her for a short whille before replying. "You are strong, Miss Stack, but too tough, hot-blooded and impulsive, as well as passionate abour your cause. You should relax a bit and stop thinking that you are the only one who can prevent a nuclear war".

Cynthia's eyes widened by the surprise. Who was that man that could see her as if she was transparent? How did he know so much about her? Was she more important and threatening to Earth that they decided to have a person foccussing just on her?

Arthur handed Alessa a glass of water to help her stop coughing. "Are you better now? Your boss must give you quite some nightmares"

Alessa wanted to agree, but her job and the Martian Union came first. "It's not like that… I really have a cold"

Arthur smiled at her, broadly. "I see. Then, I should recommend you paying the official physician a visit before it gets worse" He took a look at his papers, and finally said, "Alright, I'll admit it. Yes, the Ambassador doesn't want to meet you, because he thinks you are unexperienced and amateurish, according to him. Besides, he thinks you are too young…"

"You aren't much older than me and you are still his assitant"

"But I'm not a Representative, and I won't have a charge until my hair is grey and let grow myself a moustache, after marrying a proper lady and raising at least 3 kids"

Cynthia sighed. She was about to yell, "Forget about the moustache!", but this wasn't a friend, but an Earth's guy, despite what he said.

He stood up. "Then, we are over. The Ambassador will answer your questions in the Audience, and maybe next time, he'll agree to meet you"

He shook their hands and led them to the exit.

"It's been a pleasure meeting you. I'm eager to see your performance tomorrow", he told Cynthia, before leaving.

"When you said ´performance´, do you think about it as if I were a circus artist?", she asked, slightly annoyed.

Finally, he chuckled, and Cynthia felt even worse than before, because he seemed so normal and natural around her. "No, I don't think so… I don't think you are the circus' clown… you could be the trapeze artist, in that case"

She smirked. She was delighted with the compliment, but she couldn't let her guard down. "Alright, let's say I believe you", she said, quietly.

Once outside the building, the two young women felt more relaxed.

"Great, he liked you", Cynthia said all of a sudden. "Then, you should hang up with him at the Dinner. I've seen an ultra-sexy red dress at the Hotel's Boutique, I don't think you'll have problems with it…"

"Hey, hey, stop there!", Alessa interrupted her, laughing. "He's interested on you, not in me"

"What?", Cynthia asked, terrified. That wasn't in her plans.

"Yes. He was gentle to you, prasied you, gave pieces of advice to you… quite a move"

"Yes, I don't know what Earth wants to do with someone like him, he's too soft for them", Cynthia said, thoughtful. "But I would have bet that he was interested in you, in the way he talked and offered a glass of water to you!"  
>"But I think he isn´t", the blonde woman said, satisfied. "Then, shall I ask for that ultra-sexy dress? You sure will look differently on it", Alessa winked at her boss, provocative.<p>

Cynthia glared at her asistant, while she laughed at her. For once, their roles were switched. Maybe they weren't that different, after all.

* * *

><p>Dr Zoe Wobart walked to the intensive care room in haste, wondering if there would be any good news waiting for her.<p>

Unfortunately, not. She saw more people on the room than the previous day.

She sighed, staring at the sleeping children, all of them in coma, intubated. The oldest must have been 15 years old, not longer. It made her heart ache, seeing all those children in such a pathetic condition. Someone had to be after that, but who? The drug analysis done on their blood samples were negative, so the physicians were clueless about the reason behind that severe conditions.

The door opened, and a young man, also wearing a lab coat came into that corridor. He had brown hair and tired eyes. It was easy to notice that he had taken the kids' case under his care.

"I wonder what's going on these days…?", Dr Wobart wondered, staring anxiously at the hospitalized children through the glass window. "I mean… this is not natural. We have never received so many uncounscious kids, that aren't reclaimed by anybody. And with this strange symptoms. It's too strange"

"I've never seen anything like that through my career, also", Dr Joel Hermin, the young neurologist standing next to her said, resigned. "It all began like two weeks ago, and everyday we have at least one new case. The first ones haven't come out from their comma, so we are clueless about their situation"

"Had you asked in any other Hospitals or Clinics if there had been other cases like this ones?"

"Yeah, I did it as cautiously as I could", her colleague replied, sighing. "Remember that the higher ups don't want any publicity about this, so I couldn't be quite speciphic. But seems that every health institution in Hellespontos has people in this state"

"Only in Hellespontos?"

"Apparently"

Zoe sighed, not knowing what to say, what to think. There had to be a way to save those kids… they had already tried whatever was at hand to wake them up from their uncounscious state.

Joel cleared his throat, politely. "Sorry to come up with something like this in this place, but, I was thinking… what about having lunch together at the cafeteria? We could even discuss more about this there", he offered, smiling.

Zoe stared down at her feet, feeling her heart aching a little. Even after all those years, she couldn't overcome his disappearance. Joel was nice, handsome and "a great catch", according to Presea, but he wasn't enough to fill the void she felt within.

She smiled lightly at him. "I'm sorry… maybe we could leave it for another time, don't you think?"

Joel sighed, trying to hide his disappointment. "It's ok… but it was just a colleague's lunch, nothing out of the ordinary", he said, already walking away from her.

"Hey, don't take it badly… it's just that this kind of stuff just switched my stomach off", she lied, trying to sound convincing.

Joel stared at her, then made a sad smile. "You don't have to lie to me. We are nothing but colleagues, so you don't have to think hard about how to justify yourself", he said, bitterly.

Zoe didn't reply, but stared at him walking away. She wasn't angry at him, she actually felt sorry for making him look like a fool every time he tried to make a move on her. But somehow, she couldn't let go her past, and it was almost impossible for her to move on. She tried, she had tried doing so several times, but she failed miserably each time…

She cursed her luck in a whisper, then she left the Intensive Care area, hoping to find a way to awaken those kids, and a way to awaken herself from that "love coma" state she had fallen into.

* * *

><p>"Why are you so silent?", Hazel asked her husband, as she was getting ready to get into bed. "You've been too calm today"<p>

Alen didn't want to answer. He knew that he would talk too much if he opened his mouth. But he couldn't evade her any longer. Let it be.

"I… I've been thinking", he finally said, thinking well in the words he used.

"Yes, I already noticed that"

"I've been thinking about Athina… and Myona… and her brother", he said, slowly. He could never name Ares. This time, it was no exception.

Hazel stared at him, surprised. "And what do they have to do with Athina? Especially Ares, who never met her?"

"I… well, why was Myona so interested in Athina and not in Derek?", he finally said, letting his doubts go away from him. "Why was she just asking about her? What's so special behind the fact that she plays the piano? Is there some other interest rather than curiosity?"

There. He said it. Sort of.

Hazel looked down to the floor, trying to find a reason, trying to understand –or believe- what she had just heard. It couldn't be… She must have listened anything but what he meant.

"Sorry, I think I don't get your point", she said, smiling, trying to remain calm. "She also asked me lots of things about Derek, but it was when you were outside with Cage, that's why you didn't hear her… There's nothing out of the ordinary in her interests in our children, as I asked her about her daughter, too, and I don't have any other intention rather than trying to know something about that little girl"

Hazel's answer wasn't enough for him. It was completely reasonable, but Alen still had many heavy doubts within him. The knot in his stomach was still there, burdening him.

"Hazel, she was too excited when you said she was quite gifted with the piano… and now that I think about it, I'm also surprised she's gifted at it, when both of us are tone-deaf and music illiterate"

"My mother used to play the piano when she was young… maybe she got her genes after all", Hazel replied calmly, but she was starting to get too nervous. This wasn't right.

"I don't think it's your mother's genes…"

Hazel's eyes widened, astonished. She put her hand around her neck, instintively, forgetting that she hadn't wear that musical button for ages. Quickly, she placed it on her chest, at her heart. This wasn't happenning to her…

"You… you aren't meaning what I think you are?", she asked slowly. Her heart bumped quickly, hurtfully.

"Hazel, I don't want to… but I have no other option… she's gifted at music, her hair is too light, she has a melancholic beauty… there are too many coincidences"

"But I've never been with him!", Hazel shouted, hurt. "How can you think about it! I married you, not him! I chose you!"

"But he was already dead!"

"No, he wasn't! He was too weak at that time!"

"It's the same, you knew he was about to die any time soon!"

"And he did! There's no way he could have… he didn't have the strength! And just who do you think I am? How could you consider that I could marry you to hide the fact that I was pregnant? This isn't the 19th century! I could have easily become a single mother, if that had been the case!"

"There are artificial techniques…"

"Oh, no… I just haven't listened to that!", Hazel cried, standing up from the bed, where she was sitting until that very moment. "Do you think that he could have been able to have a normal child, after all the radiation he received? And in any case… have you ever made the count? Athina was born like a year after his death… oh, yes, I guess you think I asked for an insemination after he was dead… since you said ártificial techniques´…"

Alen was blushing, embarrassed. He hadn't thought how Hazel would react, and he wasn't expecting that. But on the other hand, his statement wasn't something that could be taken lightly. No one would have said "No, honey, you are wrong. What do you want to have for dinner tomorrow? Oh, and thanks for believing that I could go and cheat on you calmly, it makes me proud".

"And? Can't you say anything?", Hazel asked him, bitterly.

Words were the last thing that came to Alen's mind. And so, silent he remained.

Hazel sighed. "Great. Just what I needed. You have the courage to imply that I'm a whore, but you can't say anything else from that moment on. Too brave from you, bravo".

After a few moments, while trying to organize her ideas, Hazel started picking some of her things from her closet.

"Where are you going?", Alen finally said, staring at her.

"To the living room. I won't sleep by your side… maybe you'll start thinking that I'll backstab you for having found out my secret", Hazel said, bitterly and angry.

Alen knew that he had been wrong… he had known for the very first moment that it was a stupid idea, but he needed to listen to it from her mouth… only that he hadn't realize that that accusation –because it hadn't been a question- was going to ruin everything they had done together. Without realizing, he pushed forward and crossed the point of no return… Now, it was too late, but he was determined to win her back.

"I… I'm sorry Hazel!", he cried back, angstly.

Hazel didn't say anything.

"I said I'm sorry", Alen repeated, hoping she would say something… just anything was fine.

"I've already heard you", she replied, coldly. "I'm not deaf, you know"

"And…?", he asked, anxiously.

Hazel slammed the closet's door. "And? That's the only thing you can ask or say?", she asked, disappointed. "That's the only word you can think about, when you had just killed everything we got?"

"Had we had something to call our own, really?", Alen asked, lost in his thoughts. For him, everything was now a doubt.

"I had chosen you over him before he died, if that helps to refresh your memory", his wife said, seriously.

"Because I was the only other option available, right? Or because I was always around you… and because we both felt the same pain…"

He had already hitten the point of no return a long time ago in their quarrel, and now, it was as if his mind was talking for him, talking before thinking. If he could have been able to think before talking, he would have shut up his mouth a long time ago.

Hazel had to do a great effort to not slap him after his last statement. Her fists were tightneded, her hands ached her… but it was like a little scratch, compared to the emotional pain she was going through.

"He had always been between us, you know it well!", Alen's bitter and hidden side claimed.

"You are the one that brings him back to life, between us!", she yelled, angrily. "I haven't wear the button he gave me for years, for instance… and you think that I had his child because his sister asked me about my children? And you think I don't have the right to feel angry at you? You think I can smile back at you and say, "Honey, you are wrong, now come here and kiss me"? Have you ever thought about my feelings?"

No, he hadn't. He had just given for granted that she had always loved Ares more than him.

Of course, he didn't reply. The battle of sorts was lost.

Hazel sat down in their bed, gasping, at the verge of tears. But she was determined to stay strong in front of him. "Now, you'll get your things and leave this house… I won't be the one who'll get away from here, but you, since I'm so hideous and repulsive. Needless to say, I think you won't want to see the kids anymore, since they aren't yours… because I assume you believe that Derek ain't your child, too, since I'm a complete slut"

Derek… Alen hadn't taken him into account during his paranoid act. And not being aboe to see them anymore…

"Hazel… I think we have to talk about this again…", he mumbled, realizing his mistake. "I was driven by my hatred towards him"

Hazel sighed. "It's too late for any kind of apology, Alen. You should have thought about it as hard as you thought that I could have told you that another person's child was yours. Which now leads me to think that you may also have a secret life, a secret wife or something…", she said, suspicious.

"I'm not like that!", Alen yelled, furious. "You are my only love, Hazel! My everything!"

"But you think that I'm like that!", she yelled back, strongly. "You think you are an eternal victim, that everyone's against you… now, go away!"

There was nothing more they could talk about. He couldn't apologize, she couldn't forgive him. They would never reach an understanding.

Slowly, Alen picked a blanket and a pillow, and left silently. He would come for the rest of his things in the morning, if he couldn't convince Hazel.

She slammed the door behind him, then walked to the bed and laid over it.

Hazel wept silently on her bed. Why? What has she done so wrong to see everything that took her so much work crumbling in a couple of seconds? Alen had always been jealous… but at that extent? How could she not have realized that behind such a cool face, a turmoil was taking place?

It was just like him, like Ares.

Realizing that fact made her feel even more and more miserable. It seemed that now everything reminded her of Ares.

She walked to the closet and started searching for a small box. It took her a while, between her sobs and her fragile memory to find it. Before opening it, she stared at it for what she could feel like ages. Somewhat, she felt like Pandora before opening her infamous box. Somehow, that gave her the strength to open it. Maybe she would finally find the lost hope there… All the hideous things had already happened, without opening it.

Her trembling hands took her fake emerald-engarced button from the small white box. She stared at it. For a moment, she felt like transported to the time when it was given to her.

Back at that time, she felt as if her problems weren't that big and that she had an ally to overcome them. Half a day later, she thought completely different. But that button meant strength and hope for her. And for him.

She heard some light knocks at the door, and returned to her harsh reality.

"Come in!", she mumbled, quickly.

The door opened lightly, and she stopped crying.

Athina's small head showed up from the door, worried. "Mom, are you alright?"

Hazel smiled, staring at her adored child. How could Alen doubt that she was his daughter, with those big eyes just like his? How could he doubt her?

"I'm fine, sweetie", she said, smiling lightly.

Athina got into the room slowly, concerned. "Why is Papa sleeping in the living room?"

Hazel sighed. "He was having trouble sleeping here… it's too thick this room. He needed some fresher air"

That last thing was true, Hazel thought, quickly. If it was for her, she would have just thrown his things –as well as him- through the window.

"Then… can I join you?", she asked, hopefully, smiling with that adorable smile of hers.

Hazel smiled, trying to repress her tears. "Surely, honey… There's always room for you here"

The girl smiled and rushed to her mother's side, who hugged her tightly, anxiously. Just as she hugged her eldest child, lots of thoughts ravaged in her mind. How would have been her married life if she would have married Ares? How would her children have looked like, and how would they have been? How would have been Ares as a father, and as a husband? Would he have thought that she was capable of cheating on him?

She had to be realistic: she wouldn't have been able to have children with Ares, but they could have adopt some. Orphaned kids were everywhere those days, after all the encounters. That wouldn't have been a problem. But he wouldn't have lived much. She would have ended up being a single mother.

What a quaint situation. Marrying Alen hadn't been a fairytale, but today it became a horror story. And it had the same outcome than marrying Ares: she was now a single mother, because she doubted she could have the heart to forgive her husband. Maybe it was her destiny to be alone. It was a matter of acceptance.

She sighed, hugging her daughter tightly. Now, Hazel felt stronger to accept her lonely fate, since she wasn't alone. Two kids needed her. She would have to be strong enough for both of them.

Through the corner of her eye, she took a glimpse of her old button. Maybe she had really found her lost hope, after all. And maybe, from the Other Side, he was giving her the strength to go on.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: Alright… I had this written a while ago, but I decided to throw in a couple of characters –Jack and Patty, and some others to be introduced- that were pleading me to get out from my head, for once and for all. Truth to be told, I must have come up with them like a decade ago… before playing ZoE FoM, if memory serves me right. I kept thinking that maybe I shouldn't use them here, and after some inner debate, I decided that they belonged to a world like ZoE's… definetly! And so, here they are… I just had to check the rest of the story and that they won't make it run for 20 chapters more than scheduled (God, I sound much like a movie director, trying to stay on budget, hahahaha). So, this adds a little bit of excitement to this… how to mesh characters from the back-burner and trying to stay in the parameters that you've already setted up.<p>

You must think that I hate Hazel… no, I like her, poor lass… it's only that it shows that your life can go from bad to worse (as if she didn't know that… and as if you would need me to tell you that!). Through Countdown, she had to run an OF, battle the enemies and then her companions themselves… and now she had been sleeping with the enemy, as far as the story goes.

Chapter 3… is halway done, I hope to manage and write the fic soon… well, sooner than Countdown, surely!


	3. Chapter 3: Surprises

Chapter 3: Time for miracles

Mikenne was driving her way back to the orphanage from the neighbouring city where she had gone to pick an enourmously big and generous donation for the orphanage. Whoever started the donation campaign must have already win his or her place in Heaven, since she was carrying lots of different stuff, from clothing to toys, including food, books and even some pieces of furniture. Luckily, she decided to take the orphanage's transport LEV instead of the civilian one, which was bigger, even if it was archaic. She knew the donation was generous, but she had never expected it to be that big.

Maybe that was what happened to her all the time. She never expected good things to happen, and the word "luck" didn't appear in her dictionary.

Mikenne –she still thought of herself as Mikenne and not as Hope, even if she was known as Hope by everyone since she've gotten into the orphanage, shortly after running away from BAHRAM- shook her head, annoyed with herself. Her past managed to sneak into her present at every time, troubling her. That was why she loved the administrative work she usually had. She wouldn't have time to think about something else but her job. It was a great escape route… until she found herself in times like the current one, when she was all alone and her mind would set itself free. That was the reason why she hated Sundays..

She recalled the first time she had seen Pauly… She had been hiding in different administrative works after leaving BAHRAM. After helping setting up a complete library, she was recommended to the orphanage. They needed someone capable and dedicated, eager to help in getting all the kids' data in order. Since the last wars, the numer of orphaned children had risen abruptly, and there were more orphans than families interested in adoption. The governments asked the Church for help, and so, every Church had small orphanages within them.

When she saw the blonde, short-haired priest-to-be, she felt peace, but she also felt in danger. It was as if she knew that that gentle man was going to mean trouble for her. As she expected it, trouble happened, when she saw Razma and Semyl one day around. They hadn't seen her, as she was quick enough and hid in her office, but after they left, she decided to resign. Since Paul didn't want to accept her leaving, she had no other choice but to tell him the truth about her.

After listening to her entire painful and sinful story, Paul stayed silent. Mikenne thought that he would ask her to leave inmediately, but much to her surprise, he ordered her to stay. He told her that God had its plans for everyone, even if we couldn't even guess why things were the way they were rather than better. He told her to take her life at the orphanage –which wasn't going to end anytime soon, since the kids data was way too messy- as a second chance, or a new beginning.

She couldn't say no to his words, because he was organizing everything to help her without waiting for her answer. He told her that he would introduce her to Semyl and Razma as "Hope", and that that one would be her new name, to start anew at last (even if she had stopped using her real name after leaving BAHRAM, she didn't have a fixed second identity). He said that, apart from being a beautiful name, it was going to help her to keep in mind her new life.

Mikenne couldn't understand how someone so young (much younger than her), who still wasn't a Priest, could understand so much about life and people like her. She felt as if he could read her as a book at times. Reluctantly, she decided to stay, and to give his plan a chance.

Needless to say, meeting Semyl and Razma turned out to be traumatic, as she had expected it to be. Semyl recognized her quickly (even If they hadn't seen each other before, but through video links), and almost jumped at her, ready to start a fight. Razma had to do a great effort to dominate the out-bursted, energetic short girl. Paul defended her the best he could, but it had been difficult.

It was after that when she decided to hide herself –more than before- at her small office in the orphanage. She had avoided contact with the kids because she was fearful of hurting them just by being around them, and now she was afraid of Semyl or Razma's reactions… Not that she blamed them. But she didn't want to think about the past. Nor the future, for that matter. She just didn't want to think anymore.

The transport LEV made another noise, calling her attention from those troubling thoughts. That noise wasn't ordinary. She would have to get close to a gas station and ask for a mechanic to see it. She should have done it weeks ago, while she didn't need to use it, but she hadn't expected herself to offer herself to pick the donation.

Luckily for her, she saw one far in her way. That just meant that she was closer to her home, closer to stop thinking about anything anymore…

The black haired woman took her camera and her wares and got out from the van-like LEV, following her journalists companions.

The Hotel street was already crowded with fellow journalists, cameramen and photographers, as well as curious passer-byes, while the peace activists have been caught further from the hotel, and wouldn't get close at it. Another great move of the UNSF to make sure there wouldn't be any disturbances outside the annual Earth-planets meeting.

"Hey, Arantxa! Get ready, they'll arrive at any moment and I need you awake to get a great shot!", a familiar voice yelled at her from her mobile phone.

Arantxa rolled her eyes, picking the mobile. "I'm already prepared, boss", she replied to the small image of her green hair friend that appeared in her screen.

"That's what I want: your adventurous spirit!", Yukito teased her.

"Just tell me what's adventurous in a Diplomatic meeting?", she asked, annoyed.

"Well… you have to push to get good photos, and you have to do some miracles to make those old fossils look alive"

She laughed at that statement. "You may be the broadcast responsible, but you are as irresponsible as ever"

He chuckled. "One does what he can to stay true to oneself"

Arantxa sighed. "You are right… who would have said it that, sometime, you would have been so high up in there?", she asked, chuckling.

"Hey, you have work to do. I don't pay you to analyze me or write my memories", he complained, annoyed.

Arantxa laughed. "Alright, I could make more profit out of that, rather than from today, remember that I'm a Martian Geographic photographer, not a social news one… damned guy that got sick at the last moment and made me have to cover him here!"

"How would I forget? Just remember that you are supposed to take shots of people, not landscapes this time… so forget about the birds flying over your head"

"Alright, got it, it shouldn't be that difficult", Arantxa said, before cutting the communication.

"It's just some people's shots… it can't be that hard", she encouraged herself. With a deep breath, she got into the Hotel where the meeting was taking place.

"I'm dead nervous, I'm dead nervous… who would believe it!", Cynthia kept on chanting frenetically to herself, as she waited for the rest of the Martian representatives to come close to the Conference Room, where the General Audience was taking place.

The young Hellespontos representative was having trouble to coordinate her breathing, her panicking, her nervousness.

"What's taking them so long? Are they avoiding us?", she finally asked,

They have been waiting for the rest of the Martian representatives to get altogether into the Conference Room, as a way to show everyone that they were united in their dream… or at least, to look as if they were.

"Stop it, or I'll start panicking, too!", Alessa told her, trying to stay calm.

"No, please! If you loose your head, we are over!", Cynthia admitted, blushing.

"Hey, calm down, the Earthian's are coming this way!", the younger woman warned her boss, seriously.

Cynthia stopped behaving as a child, and stared at the Earth delegation calmly and collected. No one would have said that she was panicking seconds ago. Alessa stared at her boss, with a deep respect. It was in those moments when she realized that being assigned under Cynthia's wing wasn't too bad after all. She could say what she wanted at any moment, but she was also efficient and responsible. Plus, she had such a burning passion for her cause.

The Earth's delegates walked past them without barely realizing that they were there. Arthur, who was back in the group, winked at her.

Cynthia's eyes widened slightly, as she dominated the surprise he gave her by having such a casual attitude.

It wouldn't be the only cool attitude he would show towards her during the meeting. Later, during a coffee break, he approached her, while she was getting some coffee for her and for Alessa.

"Do you know what's missing in your forms?", Arthur whispered into her ear, stopping by her side, making reference to the paperwork that they had presented to be granted a meeting with the Ambassador.

"No, that's why I've asked you…", Cynthia started explaining, but was soon interrupted.

"Your phone number"

Cynthia blinked. "Just who do you think I am? I'm a professional…" It had to be a bad joke of his to make her even more nervous than what she already was. As if she needed any help.

"Then, let me invite you to dinner", he insisted.

"I'm a pro, I can't do that"

"Then, we'll share some machine-coffee, while trying to mend this mess…", he almost begged, in a hurry, as he didn't want to start looking for the rest of his delegation in haste, as he noticed they were leaving.

"You are crazy…"

He smirked. "Perhaps… but it wouldn't hurt to try", he said, as he went on walking, to avoid being left behind and making his stop too obvious and visible for everyone else.

Cynthia stared at him, silently. Uncounsciously, a small smile arose in her lips. It had been ages since someone invited her for dinner. Her troublemaker fame made men to avoid her like the plague –or so she thought. But of all people in the universe… it had to be an Earthian the one who was interested in her? Besides… was it really interest, or a low work to make her fail in her job? If that was the case, she had to be such a threat to Earth, to dedicate people and time on her. She had to feel proud of herself, again, if that was the case.

Alessa coughed on purpose, calling her back to reality. "So he's really interested on me, uh?", she teased her, smiling.

Cynthia sighed. "You can be so much like me when you want to… no one would say that you intend to be different from me"

Alessa frowned. She hated Cynthia when she said stuff like that, because it wasn't true. Or so she thought. "Whatever you say, I'm not the focus here, just a mere assistant… what are you going to do about this?"

"About what?", Cynthia asked, acting innocently. "Nothing happened. He's trying to make me loose my concentration… I won't give in. I'm much stronger than what they think I am"

Alessa smiled, proud of her boss. That was the talking. Heart affairs would have to wait. But on the other side, she realized that both her and Cynthia were work-aholics. It was such a pitiful fate… only time would tell if they were wrong about leaving everything else behind for their cause.

"You shouldn't start thinking about your life at times like this", Cynthia warned her, easily guessing what was going through her apprentice's mind. "That's life for us… and now get ready, our fellow representatives are finally coming", she said in haste, getting ready to greet the group of people who were walking their way to the Conference Room.

Alessa nodded, and stared silent at the greeting from the other representatives. They didn't seem too thrilled to have them both in the delegation, but they would have to deal with that. Hellespontos had chosen them as their representatives, so they would have to cope with that. And both of them were going to do their best to change that prejudice they had on them. That would have to be Alessa's first diplomatic battle.

Mikenne refilled her LEV's fuel, and then she noticed a sign that announced a mechanic available at the fuel station. It would be better to ask for one, since she didn't like the noises she had been hearing while driving.

"Cromwell, you've got work!", the guy that had attended her yelled, loudly.

Mikenne's heart skipped a beat, or two. Even a decade later, his name made impact on her. But it couldn't be him. He was in Earth, with his mother, when space travel had been banned.

"I'm goin'", a voice shouted back from inside the kiosk.

A cold chill run through her spine. That man sounded so much like him… All her memories about him were coming wildly to her mind, and she felt quite dizzy.

When she looked up again, once the dizzyness was over, she saw a young man, in his thirties, walking to her direction, helping himself with a cane. His left leg looked heavy, and then she noticed that the whole left side of his body was slower than the right one.

Her eyes opened widely, due to the surprise, and stayed there, petrified.

"Finally, it was time!", his co-worker mocked him. "This lady wants to get her LEV checked. She says there´s a strange noise…"

"Alright, I'll take care of it, don't worry", the mechanic said, staring piercingly at Mikenne.

The other guy left, his job already done, and both of them felt as if the rest of the world had dissappeared for them.

Mikenne was the first one to talk. "What are you doing here? You have to be at Earth, recovering!", she exclaimed angstly, defying those brown eyes –even the left one, which was closer than the right one- that hurt her.

"First of all, good evening, ma'am", he said, coldly. "Then, I don't know who do you think I am, but there must be a misunderstanding", he started explaining, calmly.

"Come on, Ethan! You've never been a good liar!", Mikenne protested, smirking.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not that person you think I am", he replied, seriously. "Now, moving onto more important things, what kind of noise do you hear and when?"

Mikenne felt helpless. She had never expected to see him again, but if she did, she never considered that he could have forgotten everything about his life before the coma. Or that he could hold a grudge against her. Maybe it was the best for him, but why didn't Margareth tell her about it, both about him being in Mars and his amnesia?

"It's a high-pitched noise, every time I press the brake", she said, trying to be strong, even if her voice was soft and hurt.

"Like always", he said, annoyed. "It's always the same, the brakes"

He said it in a way, that Mikenne couldn't tell if he was talking about the brakes or about her. She would have picked up the last option if she had been sure it was Ethan who was in front of her, but the man kept on claiming that it wasn't him.

Mikenne didn't want to listen to him anymore. She just wanted to leave that place, get to her home and cry. A thing that she felt not capable to do in her past, now was so easy, and almost like a hobby for her.

It was then that an explosion could be heard, shaking the ground below. The guy lost his balance, his cane falling, but he could get ahold of Mikenne's LEV.

Mikenne walked to his side and grabbed him, but she was paying more attention to the sky, trying to find a reason for that sound.

After that, some deep, strange noises, joined another explosion, and some vehicles could be seen far in the horizon, going along the road.

"Hell, so they are practising again?", the first guy that Mikenne talked to at the station yelled, annoyed, as he came out of the kiosk.

"Who are they?", Mikenne asked him back, shouting through the noises.

"Who knows? Some stupid rebels, I guess", the man replied, as he came in and out of the kiosk, carrying things with another man into a parked LEV.

"Where are you going?", she asked, when she noticed that they were ready to leave, while the mechanic still remained there, holding to her LEV and her arm.

"Don't you see, idiot?", the mechanic finally said, bitterly. "If we stay, this may blow up!"

Mikenne felt stupid for her question, but she was so numb and confused that she didn't came into account that she was in a fuel station, after all.

"And why don't you go with them?", she asked him, bitterly, as well.

"Because I can't run… where's your intelligence?", he asked, annoyed. "Do you have any neuron left?"

"I'll take you with them", the red-haired woman said, but half in the way, the other LEV started its engine and left, leaving them behind.

"Just… great", she mumbled, puzzled.

"That was why I wouldn't move… it was useless from the start", he said, seriously. "Not that I blame them, I would just slow them down and reduce all our chances of getting away. I'm fine with this"

The noises were now closer, and some shots were hitting nearby structures.

The mechanic hold her shoulder strongly and made her turn back to her LEV. "Come on, let's go! Why are you so slow?"

As if it was a dream, he led her to her LEV, and got into it in the driver's seat. Under Mikenne's surprising look from the companion's seat, he started the engine, and began their way far from the station, far from the enemy.

"Dad! I'm hungry!", the small black-haired kid shouted, standing next to his father, who was still cooking.

"Yes, me too!", his twin sister joined, anxiously. "Why are you taking so long, dad?"

The tall, thin, black-haired man sighed, tired. He had doubted much before giving into parenthood. But if he had known that he would have had twins, he would have decided to avoid it.

"Hey, I'm doing the best I can… have you already been watching TV?", he asked, trying to get rid of them for a while.

"Yes, there's nothing interesting"

"Then… have you already done your homework?"  
>"Later, when Mom comes"<p>

"But wouldn't it be better to do it now, so you won't trouble your tired mother?", he asked. "And let me cook at ease", he added for himself.

Just then, the front door was closing, and that relieved him. That meant that Mom was home, and that the brats… that the kids would go and annoy… er, play with her for a while.

"Mom! Finally, you've arrived!"

The thin, light haired woman smiled, hugging them. "Hi, kids, hi, honey"

"Hi, Dana", Twede greeted her back, grateful that she had arrived at last.

She smiled, cheerfully. She looked younger than during her days at BIS, maybe because her hair was now longer, having it shoulder-lenghted.

"Mom, will you help me with my homework, please?", Chris, the girl, asked, grinning.

"Hey, I was going to ask her first!", Tom, her brother, complained, annoyed. "Why do you have to do whatever I decide to do?"

"Hey, kids, calm down!", she said, smiling. "I'll help you both at the same time. Since you share the classroom, the homework must be the same, am I wrong?"

"Whatever, but I understand it better when he's not around, trying to show off", Chris complained.

"She's just too slow!"

"Hey, you should better learn to cope with each other, sooner or later!", their mother said, slightly tired. "Now, let's go and put the table, that Dad's almost ready with lunch"

"Hooray!", they yelled, happily, rushing to the dining room.

Once they were outside the kitchen, Dana walked to Twede´s side and kissed him sweetly on the forehead. "And? How did they behave?"

"A nightmare… like usual", Twede said, sighing. "I don't know what I would do if they weren't my kids… I would have probably run away long ago"

"Hey, we've been through more complicated things rather than two school children", she teased him, entertained.

"Well, it was quite different at that time!", Twede complained. "At least, at that moment I could go and disappear every time I wanted"

"But you always returned without being called, having resolved everything", she said, sweetly.

Twede blushed slightly, since Dana's praising to whatever he did apart from his previous work embarrassed him. "And? How were things at the factory today?"

"Oh, fine… nothing interesting", she said, sighing. "It's a completely different world, the one of the kitchen appliances… I even wonder why we decided to set up that kind of business in first place…"

"Because it was the first thing we came up with that could give us money fast", Twede reminded her, staring at their products –spoons, forks, knives, kettles, all the battery- resigned.

"Yes, people will always eat, and they need appliances for it", Dana said, smiling resigned. "However, I hope that someday we can get the chance to work in our field again…", she added, in rememberance.

"It would be nice", Twede said, but somehow he wasn't so convinced.

"Yes, I know that", she said, before he could talk. "If we were working in our field, that would mean that the situation is worse, and that we would be fighting the "bad guys"… but with our kids, I don't know if I would have the guts to do that, even if I'd never run an OF"

"The risks are too high", he said, sitting next to her. "We aren't young anymore"

"We aren't fossils, either. Besides, what I like the most is that I get to see you without those black glasses and gloves"

Twede smirked. "They were necessary back then. You used to have your hair up in some elegant fashion"

"What? Don't you like it straight like I wear it now?"

"It's nice, but it also shows that we are in another moment of our lives"

"Mom!", Chris yelled, anxiously.

"Well, seems we have a new battle ahead, uh?", she said, teasing him.

"I don't know what I prefer the most, to be sincere!", he said, sighing.

"Oh, talking about dealing with new stuff, the day after tomorrow we have the first delivery with the new transport company…"

"I hope I won't have to deal with them as I had to do with the previous company", Twede said, not so comfortable, since they had had some missing deliveries with the previous company, that led them to legal problems.

"I hope so…", Robin said, sighing. "I have to meet the guy in the morning, I just wanted to remind you"

"Alright… then I'll go next time", he said, approvingly. "How was it called, the company?"

"Midran Transport"

"Moooooom!", her boy's voice filled the kitchen, anxiously.

"Woops, gotta go, hun", she said, smiling. She kissed him on the cheek and left to the dinning room, wondering how the rest of BIS was coping with their new lives, so far away, yet so near.

Mikenne had been staring at the road silently, in the companion's seat, while the Ethan-clone-stranger kept on driving, also silently. From time to time, she would stare at him, trying to convince herself that it couldn't be Ethan, because he had to be in Earth, and because that man said he wasn't him. The man wouldn't look back at her, and that made her feel worse.

They had barely escaped from the explosions, bombing or whatever took place behind them. The wasteland looked more desolate than ever, and that reminded her of the Vascilian training camps… It was evident that some rebel-training activities were happening in Hellespontos.

"Does that happen frequently?", she asked, worried. She had just realized that she had been taking her civilian life for granted, even if she remember each day of her life all the pain that she had caused to others and thought that she didn't deserve any kind of forgiveness by anyone. But she never wondered if she could try to help in some way to prevent the start of new rebel groups, or the rebirth of others. Working at Father Pauly's orphanage seemed enough, but now she realized it wasn't. While she could try to help indirectly (because she didn't allow herself to befriend the kids) a certain number of kids, there had to be hundreds out there that didn't have that possibility, and so, they became the prime matter for the rebel groups.

"From time to time", he said, calmly. "We are sort of used to it, otherwise, my pals wouldn't have run away that quickly. But they never reached today's extent"

"And you stay so calm about it?"

"What can we do? Call the UNSF? Call the media? Whoever we can call, it's useless… they'll kill themselves before they realize it"

"But if no one does something about it, they'll just keep growing and growing! Why can't you civilians take part in the matter?", she yelled, angstly.

"Then, you aren't a civilian, I assume?", the man asked, looking at her through the corner of the eye.

Mikenne sighed. Not only he resembled Ethan too much, he also shared his wittyness and bitterness. It was going to be a long way, and she just wanted it to be over.

"Of course I am, but since I'm living in the city, I don't get to see much if there are any unusual activities like that one! And you, that you see them, don't do anything about it"

"I ended up like this because I've tried to stop that kind of things, in a way"

"Then, you should know that we don't need any rebels to awaken and throw havoc everywhere! Think that you could prevent more people to end up like you!", she went on, with her desperate pray against BAHRAM –because she just knew it was BAHRAM and no other group the ones that have been bombing the wasteland-, without realizing that she was being too pushy about it.

"Mikenne, just stop it!", he shouted, irritated.

She stared at him, frightened. So he wasn't amnesiac… he was acting it. And it was Ethan, after all.

She felt both happy and enraged, and for both feelings she had the same question: Why did he make her believe that he didn't know who she was? She was afraid of asking… but she had to know.

Ethan stared away from her, concentrating on the road ahead, angry with himself. He was planning to not acknowledge her. At all.

"Why?", she finally asked him, softly.

He kept silent. "Why what?"

"Why didn't you want to tell me that it was really you?", she asked, saddened. "And why did you agree to check the LEV, if you didn't want to do it?"

"Money… It's my job, I can't become an elitist and choose who I want to work for and who I don't", he just replied, as he kept on driving, his eyes fixed on the road.

Mikenne's heart was overfilled with joy and rage. Rage, because he tried to avoid her. Joy, because he was alive. Suffering sequels from his coma, but still alive. Soon, she started to feel fear. What was he doing in Mars, when she had seen his shuttle leaving to Earth, almost a decade ago? Why he was there, if Mars didn't give him anything? All the contrary, it took things back from him.

"You grew silent all of a sudden", he stated, smirking. "Are you disappointed that I'm still alive?"

His words hurt her. They were like piercing glasses scratching her heart over and over again.

"No, I'm not disappointed. I'm surprised", she just said, indifferently. If he had been playing dumb, she would do the same. There was no reason to tell him how she really felt if he didn't care.

"We Earth people are really toughies, don't you think?", he kept on talking, sarcastically. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. Doctors said I was really strong to recover from my state. Mom did a great job, too…"

Mikenne was bitting her lip to not ask him how his mother got to know that he was in bad shape, but she had already promised herself –and made Margareth, his mother- promise that he would never know that she had been the one that had taken him to the Hospital and contacted her mother at Earth.

"But… what are you doing here?", she finally asked, coldly. "Weren't you supposed to be at Earth?"

There was an uncomfortable silence. "Why do you want to know? It doesn't matter to you", he finally said, annoyed.

He pressed the brake, but nothing happened. It was difficult to control her transport LEV. With some difficult, he could stop it.

"There's a motel over there", he said, annoyed. "This thing needs some work, so I suggest we register there until I can fix it. Not that I'm too fond of the idea, but it's the only thing left to do"

Mikenne nodded, her mind somewhere else. It was turning out to be a nightmare, her encounter with Ethan. He was so full of remorse and hatred, not like the Ethan she had known and liked, the one she pushed away from her to avoid hurting him .

Ethan took that as an affirmative reply, and drove slowly to the motel, hoping that the repairs wouldn't take too long.

After a long day at the Earth-Enders annual meeting, Cynthia was desperate for some fresh air. The young Martian diplomat was dead tired and sicked of having been ignored, over-spoken and ignored again during the entire meeting. Alessa couldn't feel more disappointed than Cynthia herself, not only because they could barely show that they were capable of representing the county, but because it was more of a personal grudge than a professional one they had against her.

Cynthia felt bad for herself, but even more for Alessa, as she knew that she was doing nothing but harming the student's still unborn career. Like every meeting, nothing came in clear, and the most exciting things were the encouraging faces that the Earth Ambassador's assistant, Arthur Feyden, made at her in an attempt to cheer her up from afar. It had to be the only polite thing that had happen in the meeting.

They were having some trouble to get out of the Hotel. There were too many people, mainly journalists, out there, waiting for them to get out, to try to get some news or something to say. Unfortunately, she was too tired… And she was thinking that they had the formal reception that very night… just a great way to end a disastrous day…

"Miss Stack, Miss Stack, over here!", Pat waved at the young Diplomat, anxiously.

Surprised, Cynthia turned back, and walked to her side. "Yes, how may I help you?", she asked the young woman politely, as Alessa stood behind her, waiting for her chat to be over.

"Hello, nice to meet you. I´m Patricia Mc Wellin, and this is my companion Jack Troast", she introduced themselves, nervously. "We are journalism students, and we would like to have a few words with you, if it's not a bother to you"

Cynthia chuckled. "Alessa, we are lucky today", she teased her assistant, who just sighed. "Wow, kids, you make me feel so proud and honored… but I have to warn you that maybe your grades will drop dead after an interview with me"

"That's the challenge", Jack said, trying to sound friendly.

"It's quite strange that you've decided to talk to me… Have you lost some bet?"

"No, we choose you especially", Pat went on talking, while Jack just remained silent.

"Alright… right now I can't give you a full interview, but I don't have any problems to talk to you sometime later. We have the Reception tonight, so that's why I won't be able to give you the time you deserve today"

"At least, can you tell us something about today's meeting? Has it fulfilled your expectations?"

Cynthia giggled. "When you have another planet meddling in your own planet's businness, and you can't get rid of it, you can't say that you are satisfied until you reach an agreement… being it kicking the intruders out of your home or establishing peace-keeping measures"

"Do you really think you'll be able to reach an agreement?", Pat asked

Cynthia sighed, tired. "Which one would you prefer to hear: the real answer, or the politically correct one?"

"I admire your sincerity", the long-haired girl praised her.

Cynthia chuckled. "I used to like it, too… but now I know that it only leads me to Trouble-Land… only that I'm still that stupid to follow that lane", she tried to make fun out of herself. "Alright… truth to be told, I severely doubt we'll get close to an agreement… much like every year. If there was real intention, we would have already finished this circus a long time ago…"

Alessa sighed. That was way too much sincerity with some strangers… and Earth strangers, to be worse. But she wasn't as annoyed as she supposed she had to be. Maybe it was because Cynthia finally could talk freely, and someone was listening to her. That's nice, even if it's off the record.

Jack kept silent. He didn't really like the woman, but he decided to follow Patty's enthusiasm and go with the flow. What was so interesting in a woman who looked down at the other diplomats and tried to both make fun of them and denigrate them, altogher?

"I hope we can talk longer in another opportunity, Miss Stack, thanks so much for your time", Pat thanked her, wholeheartedly.

"The pleasure's mine… ours, better said", she said, patting Alessa's shoulder.

The two young women kept on walking, ready to go to their hotel and get some sleep before the reception.

Among all the journalists, Cynthia managed to find, by chance, Arantxa's face. The black haired photographer waved and winked at her, thing that made Cynthia smile in a beautiful way, refreshened with hope and youthful strength, as if she had been transported for a while to her teen years.

Luckily, Arantxa managed to take that photo, catching a small glimpse of hope in Cynthia. She gave her a thumbs up, as a way to encourage her.

Arantxa was really proud at her shot. There, the young Cynthia, with her youthful hope and strenght seemed to coexist with the Diplomat Woman, tough and passionate. In a way, it had been a work of art, a small glimpse of Cynthia's soul, the photograph she had just taken.

"Hey, remember that this isn't the wasteland and keep on taking shots!", one of her companions hurried Arantxa, as he noticed that she was staring at the camera.

The black haired woman let go a curse under her breath, and kept on taking photographs.

"She´s quite pleasant, unlike the mad-woman image the media makes out of her", Patty stated approvingly, once she and her friend managed to leave the crowd around the Hotel's door.

"Yeah, she seems nice", Jack said, not so enthusiastically.

"Hey, you could try to lie to me with a bit more of enthusiasm", she snapped back, sarcastically. "I don't see a bright future ahead of you if you keep this attitude"

Jack shrugged. So she had noticed, after all. "I don't know, Pat… there's something that I don't really like about her, but I can't tell what it is"

"Maybe it is the fact that you are a male chauvinist at heart and believe that women have to stay at home and raise the kids", she said, smiling teasingly.

He sighed. "In that case, I wouldn't encourage you to pursue your career"

"Sorry… but I wouldn't do anything just because you tell me to do it or not. I can think on my own, thanks", she said, slightly annoyed.

Pat could turn into a difficult girl, but that was one of the things that he liked about her. He really liked how well she could understand the world and take her decisions without hesitating. For him, it was quite difficult, and he decided to go with the flow, even if he really didn't like it, but it was easier to play safe and follow the others.

Not so far from them, a blonde woman in her twenties followed them. She had been keeping an eye at them since they'd approached Miss Stack. Now that they were far enough from the hotel, it was time for her to introduce herself to them.

"Excuse me… I've seen you chatting with Miss Stack… are you friends of her, by any chances?", she, walking next to them.

Pat and Jack turned back immediately, surprised of that approach. They met a blonde woman wearing green jogging trousers and a white tank top coming to them, her straight blonde hair flowing with the warm Martian wind.

"You can call me Victoria", the woman introduced herself. "I'm part of the Martian Resistance", she said, proudly.

Pat and Jack stared at each other, surprised. This was really out of the ordinary. Not only they had been able to talk briefly to Miss Stack, but now a member of the Resistance showed up to them… while they still haven't thought on interviewing one.

"Hey, what's wrong?", Victoria asked, staring at the silent pair. "Don't tell me that you still think that real Martians are either red or green-skinned, with antennae on their heads?", she teased them, sarcastically.

"It's not that", Pat managed to reply, pulling some of her brown hair, a sign of nervousness. "It's just that we never thought that a member of the Resistance could ever think of approaching us… we aren't Martian"

"I know that, don't worry", she said, giggling.

"Then, what do you want to do with us?", Jack faced her, annoyed. "I don't see how we can be of any help to you"

"Woah, woah, chill out, boy!", Victoria said, laughing, entertained by the entire scene. "I hold no guns", she added, raising her hands and placing them on her head.

"He's too hot-headed, sorry!", Pat apologized for her friend, as she hugged him to calm him down.

"It's alright… it's good to know that he has some blood left on his veins", she said, defiantly.

Jack glared at her. Apparently, she have been doing some kind of research.

"Alright, what do you want?", Patricia said quickly, because she didn't know how much longer Jack would remain silent.

"Well, as far as I know, you are journalism students, right?"

Pat nodded, seriously.

"Well… we could exchange some words… clean up our name, let others know about our philosophy… something that we would never do with the big media holdings because we would all be imprisoned at once, even if we had never done anything"

"You say you hadn't done anything?", Jack asked sarcastically. "If I'm not mistaken, some hideous things have happened and have been atributed to the Resistance…"

"That's the problem", Victoria interrupted him. "Even if I introduced myself as part of the Resistance, there are several factions, and the one I'm in, has nothing to do with the ones after the latests bombings and kidnappings… that's why we would need to clean our name"

"But we can't do much, we are students", Pat said.

"Yes, but maybe that could help to spread the word a little…"

"Sorry, but in this day and age… can't you pick a camera, a cell-phone or something like that and film yourself, then upload it in some social network?", Jack said, annoyed. "I can't see how we can be helpful"

Victoria sighed. "Alright, seems that it was a bad idea…"

"It is a bad idea", Jack said, irritated. "You go and start making a fuss, and nothing good can come out clean"

"That's why I needed you", she interrupted him, annoyed. "We are not all the same, and the Resistance has now split in two factions: one that wants to keep on attacking the Earth, and the another one where we think that there has to be a peaceful way out. I thought that some press explaining it could do… and if you happen to be friends of Miss Stack, I thought it would have been better, but… well, it's no use, sorry for having wasted your time", she said, turning around and leaving them behind.

Patricia stared at her, sadenned. "Do you really think that she's liying?"

"She has to be", Jack said, annoyed. "Otherwise, why would she want to talk to us, who have no power nor connections on the media?"

"She has a point: we have the Uni backing us up", Pat said, seriously. "If they believe her, maybe some of the teachers would really want to contact her and help her and her faction to spread their message"

"They don't need us for that, they already have Internet"

Pat stared at him, smiling sadly. "If you happen to think like that, why are you studying Journalism in first place? If everyone can get their message out so easily, there wouldn't be any need of us… and we are still here"

Jack sighed. That had been a great point against him. Pat was going to become a great journalist, that was for sure.

"Well… for things like that, she doesn't need media…"

"You are wrong. She wouldn't need media if she was to make her announcement in sexy lingerie, or completely naked, but if she had gone as far as to split the Resistance, I highly doubt she'll do something like that to call the press' attention"

Jack didn't reply, but kept on walking. Then, he stared at her and smiled. "Alright, I may have been wrong. But if she really is serious about her claim, she'll keep insisting, either with us or with someone else, don't you think so?"

Pat wasn't too thrilled by that line of thought.

"Oh, come on, let's go and get a frappé, I´m inviting", he said, smiling broadly.

She grabbed his arm and sighed. "Alright… but don't think you'll be able to buy me with a frappé… I'll go on thinking about all this"

Jack just smirked, satisfied. He could live with that.

Already in the afternoon, Mikenne sighed in her room, wondering why life was so… quaint. Finding Ethan, from all people, alive and… well, "well" wasn't the right word to describe his health state, but at least he was alive! But finding him in Mars, when she thought he was still on Earth, was way too puzzling, way out of the ordinary. She would have to call Margareth, his mother and the one she used to contact from time to time to learn about his health, and ask her why she didn't tell her that Ethan was on Mars.

She sighed, once more. The fact that there were rebels in action… that was something that was bugging her, even if she couldn't do anything about it, in her current position.

She got up from the bed, not feeling too secure about anything, but decided to face what life had put just in front of her. If she wanted to get some answers, she would have to go and talk to Ethan… there was no other way out. Not that she disliked the idea…

She walked her way out the small hotel, and she found Ethan already taking a look at her old and dusty transport LEV. It was a quaint thought, that one. A decade ago, she used to run state-of-the-art OFs… and now, she had to deal with something that was more of a wreckage rather than a transport.

"What are you doing here?", he asked, fixed in his work, once he noticed she was standing there, staring at him. "Are you afraid that I would run away, or do you think that I wouldn't be able to fix this old thing?"

She sighed, trying not to mind his attacks, even if it hurted her.

"You haven't really tell me about the rebels…", she finally said,

"I did!", he complained, his head buried over the engine.

"No, you were pretending to be a complete stranger and then you gave in, so I completely forgot about the rebels… until now", Mikenne said, seriously.

Ethan sighed, taking a breath from looking down at the LEV's engine. "Look… I've got two things to tell you"

"I'm eager to listen to them"

"The first one is that I won't be able to fix this thing during the afternoon… I'll have to go and find some spare parts, but this needs an internal cleaning as soon as possible, so that's what I'll do during the evening… so, we'll have to spend the night here"

Mikenne didn't say anything. She just couldn't believe her bad luck.

"Alright, I see you are thrilled about it", Ethan stated sarcastically. Before she could say anything in her defense, he went on talking, "Just what was going on your mind? This is a mess… I could easily say that this has never been cleaned…", he insisted, staring at the engine. "No wonder you heard things… but I can't understand how you forgot about revising your LEV from time to time, considering where you come from"

"People change, I guess", she said, absent-minded.

Ethan stared at her and sighed. That attitude was so like her… and still wasn't. It was more washed out than the Mikenne he had known, because the latter one had a cause to fight for, while the current one seemed… lost.

"Surely… life does some nasty things to us, humans", he said, staring at his cane, leaning over the LEV. "Whatever the case… this is a precarious thing. Who would have said that you would drive something like this!"

"Who would have said that you were going to return to Mars when you don't have anything left here?", she asked, teary-eyed, with her voice weakening.

But Ethan wasn't looking at her, and to him, her voice sounded preachingly.

"Oh, sorry for staying at your planet", he said, sarcastically. "Where did you get this? At a garage sale?"

"You wouldn't believe me where I got it if I were to tell you", she said, now stronger.

"Alright, seems I won't get to know right now"

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that you'll laugh, and you won't believe me, at the same time"

"It's alright, what you do with your life is none of my business", he interrupted her. "Well, about the rebels… since you wanted to know… there's not much to say. From time to time there's an explosion, or we see some LEVs far away… but they had never been so close to the station"

"However, your companions were ready to get out of there just as they saw them coming from miles away"

Ethan stared at her mockingly. "We use to do that… we won't stay there, at the station, where everything can blow up, to get to know if it's a training session or a real attack, don't you think so?"

Mikenne looked down, embarrassed. He had a good point there.

"What I can't understand… is why you haven't done anything about it", she said, thoughfully.

Ethan stopped working on the LEV. He let go a deep sigh, and just by looking at his body language, it was obvious that he was annoyed at her. With a wrench in a hand and holding himself tightly from the LEV, he stared at her, angrily. "Just what do you expect me to do, in this state? I can't run after anyone, even if my life depends on it… Besides, getting involved led me this way, so… thanks, but I'll pass. I'll let someone else to save the world, the time to play the hero has already passed for me. Besides… nothing would change. The only thing that changed was my health. You haven't changed, at all… it's so easy to tell… I don´t know why I´m wasting my time this way…"

Mikenne felt bad. For him, for herself, for the entire world. It had to be one of the few times in her life that she cared about something… and something else rather than the people around her, but the world around.

Ethan's harsh words crushed her heart, one after the other. Even if she couldn't expect him to kiss her (how could she think something like that? Whatever way, she actually did, and that embarrassed her more) or welcome her cheerfully as if nothing had ever happened… but she had never prepared herself to face such bitterness, such hatred towards anything or anyone… It was the first time she had prefered him death…

"Well, it's the interrogatory over?", he asked, piercingly. "I have work to do… and I don't get paid to hypothethize"

She didn't say anything, and left him alone. Now, fixing her car wasn't her top priority, but looking for a way to mend her broken heart.

"You did what?", Jess' shouts resounded all over the gym, making some of her companions loose their balance in their exercises.

Alen looked down, embarrassed. "Alright, I've screwed it up…"

"That's the only thing you have to say?", the teen asked, irritated. "I mean… we have talked about it, you knew what you could loose because you are a jealous jerk, and you still did it?"

"I just couldn't repress it anymore!"

"But you know her!", Jess defended Hazel strongly. "You can't doubt of her like you did! Or at least, you shouldn't have opened that big mouth of yours!"

Alen was having enough. He was having a hard time trying to control his inner demons, everything went out wrong, and now, that brat was preaching him.

"What do you know about life, can you tell me?", he roared, annoyed and tired of her constant nagging.

She stared at him, deeply hurt. Who the Hell did he think he was to tell her that she knew nothing about life? Alright, she may knew little about living in a family from the very beginning, but she knew much more about solitude than him… about being rejecting than him… about being hopeless and making others think that you give a damn about hope or destiny… He didn't have the right to tell her something like that, he, who had been born in a family and been able to make his own… even if he had just destroyed it in a second.

"The fact that I'm younger doesn't allow you to talk to me like that", she said, bitterly. "Even if I have a dear family to me, they aren't my real relatives, and even if I try to not be affected by it, I can tell you that I'd love them to be by my side… I think that a fine family is better than no family at all… You had a perfect family, but then, you thought you had proof to doubt your wife. Have you ever thought for a second on your children? Or about your only child, since you are convinced that Hazel made you a cuckold?"

"Stop it!", Alen shouted, angrily. "You can't talk to me like that, either, brat!"

"Look who's been intelligent and delicate first!"

Their voices started rising, getting louder and louder. Everyone at the gym stared at them, surprised. Jess was known for being tough, as well as Alen, but they had never had such an encounter between them.

Alen coughed, attempting to cut their argument and being the centre of attention of the entire gymnasium, but Jess was too hurt to notice her surroundings.

"I think we should call it off today… let's try training tomorrow", he said, firmly, already picking his things.

Jess stayed silent, angrily.

"Alright, see you tomorrow, then", she finally said, still annoyed.

In no time, she grabbed her things and left the gym, leaving Alen behind.

"Mom, where's Dad?", Derek asked, surprised that it was already evening and his father wasn't around.

"He's not coming today, honey", Hazel replied, while getting dinner ready. "He had a training camp scheduled… so he won't be at home for a couple of days"

"But aren't the camps scheduled for summer?", Athina asked, confused.

"This one's different. So different, that he had forgotten completely about it", she said, strongly. It seemed it would be difficult to fool her kids. "It's in the outskirts, so maybe he will show up from time to time, or will return quickly… you know how Dad is… he may come up with things out of the blue"

Derek seemed satisfied with that answer, but something was bugging Athina, her nine-year-old daughter. Finally, the girl found out what it was.

"Mom?", Athina called.

"What's the matter, honey?"

"That's a pretty pendant", she said, staring at Hazel's button.

The blue-haired woman touched the fake emerald jewel, softly. "It's gorgeous, isn't it? It's a gift from a departed friend… he wanted me to be happy…"

"Doesn't Dad want the same for you?", Athina asked, innocently.

Hazel sighed. Her daughter already understood the world as it really was, and she wasn't still ten. What a destiny she had ahead!

"Yes… I want to think so, but sometimes, grown ups say many things that they shouldn't… It's not like you, kids, that you can argue, and then forget everything easily and forgive at once…"

"Grown ups are complicated", the girl stated, sighing. "Why is it that we have to grow up?"

Now Hazel sighed, not really knowing what to answer. Athina was proving to become a trouble-maker girl, in her own way. Instead of getting into troubles, she just drop those bomb-like questions, analyzing everything that came in her hands.

"No offense, honey, but if you don't stop thinking too much about everything, you'll never be happy in this world", Hazel said, hugging her daughter tightly.

"I know Mom… but it's alright", the little girl said, with a maturity that surprised Hazel. "You didn't have it easy, did you?"

Hazel tried to smile, but her nervousness was betraying her. "No, honey, but that doesn't mean that you have to live things just as I lived them. You should be happy and carefree, a bit of an airhead, rather than giving it into thinking way too much about everything"

"But I'm your daughter. It would be a miracle if I turned out different", the girl said, wisely.

Hazel stayed silent, open-mouthed. She didn't know if she should cry or laugh at her daughter's occurrences.

"Well, I guess it's enough…", Athina said, smiling lightly.

"Yes, you've said enough", Hazel said, smiling. "Now I want you to go and have some fun. Go and play the piano, play with your brother, call some friend, do your homework, whatever, but don't stay silent and lonely, ever, ok? Is that a promise?"

The girl stared at her mother through her big, grey eyes. Then, she smiled, "Alright, mom, it´s a promise"

Hazel smiled, already knowing that her child wouldn't be able to keep it, but hoping she would.

Notes: Alright… more past characters (cannon and not) show up, as well as new ones… it's a fun challenge to write a sequel…


End file.
